Health and Medical Orientation

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MEDICAL AND HEALTH ORIENTATION BEING A PAPER PRESENTED AT THE M.Sc. CLASS SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN BY LAWAL, FOLORUNSHO AFEEZ COURSE TITLE: MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY (SOC 672) LECTURER IN-CHARGE DR. A. Y. MUHAMMED JANUARY, 2013 HEALTH AND MEDICAL ORIENTATION The field of medical sociology has long been aware of the greater resistance among the lower socio-economic and minority groups and the need to reach out to the groups in order to secure their active participation in the public health programmes. Medical care has developed into a highly complex, specialized “business” in which the physician, as a vendor of medical care, has lost both contact with and interest in the patient as the purchaser and consumer of medical care. Ramifications of this development may be seen in the gradual disappearance of the general practitioner, in the increased fragmentation and discontinuity of medical care, in the rising costs of medical treatment, and in many other aspects of the patient-physician relationship. There can be little doubt that the medical care systems in the world today are in the state of ferment and the future is bound to witness drastic changes in almost all aspects of medical care from the selection and training of medical personnel to the organization and conduct of medical practice. Underlying this upheaval are many social, economic, political and medical forces. These changing trends in the health picture have created many problems for both physician and patient alike. World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ (Hughes, Kroehler and VanderZanden, 1999). MEANING OF HEALTH ORIENTATION In recent years, a number of investigators have begun to examine the

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