Abstract
The search for the appropriate name for a person who seeks medical help is not new. I have supported my preference for ‘patient’ rather ‘client’ before [1], as have others [2,3].
We could all become a little paranoid if we try too hard to find the hidden agendas, ulterior motives or even political correctness behind the increasing appearance of ‘clients’ in both the lay media and professional literature. But I do not think it necessary to go down that pathway.
The most essential process is to make a choice of the correct word to use that is both congruous and relevant to one's own self-definition. As Ellard [3] wrote, ‘…I am not a mental health professional, I am a psychiatrist. I do not have clients who are consumers of mental health care; I work with people who are suffering in particular ways … they are my patients’.
If we use the simple criterion as might be stated in a dictionary, ‘a patient is someone who attends a doctor (medical graduate/practitioner) or is undergoing medical treatment’, the problem becomes illusory.
If I needed any convincing, Raphael [4] has stated the case for the retention of ‘patient’ in the most elegant and persuasive way I have read. As a clinician, I will still address my patients with respect, as patients and, if Nair's [5] figures are correct, patients prefer to be called patients anyway.