Review: Reconsidering patient centred care: Between autonomy and abandonment. By Pilnick, A. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited. 2022. pp. 168. £65.00 (hardback). ISBN: 9781800717442

What is the purpose of healthcare professional expertise in modern society? This, for me, is the question that lingers from Alison Pilnick’s problematisation of ‘patient centred care (PCC)’. While PCC has provided a welcome antidote to ‘doctor knows best’, and drawn attention to the importance of patient perspectives, the author argues that this abstract moral principle is not fit for its intended purpose of improving healthcare outcomes. Using conversation analysis, she demonstrates that the way PCC is ‘talked into being’ in real-world healthcare interactions can side-line clinicians’ knowledge and expert assessment. Because this expertise is a resource patients wish to draw on, its absence can leave them feeling abandoned and burdened rather than supported. It can also create a vacuum of professional expertise in the social networks patients use to make sense of their situation.