The road to patient-centred care in Peru: The difficulties and opportunities to achieve participatory health care

Abstract

Patient-centred care (PCC) is a pillar of quality health services, where decision-making power is shared between the clinician and the patient. Although, this approach could be adopted with easiness in high income settings or in countries with unified health systems, in settings such as Peru, where universal access and other structural problems remain a challenge, the practice of PCC is not a priority. In Peru, research on PCC has been conducted for almost two decades, but this has not generated a need for development in academia, decision makers, health personnel or patients. Here, we give an overview of the road that PCC research has taken in Peru and the challenges that remain to translate it into clinical practice.

Keywords: Partizipative Entscheidungsfindung; Patient-centred care; Patienten- und Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung; Patientenzentrierte Versorgung; Peru; Public and patient involvement; Shared decision making.