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Summary
Through an examination of the life of an 83-year-old patient diagnosed clinically with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), general practice specialists, consultants and junior doctors will see the importance of assessing their patient's concept of health and how to use this understanding to target healthcare options within their healthcare system. This article highlights, in a resource limited context of rural family practice, the utility of a strong physician–patient relationship, recalls the definition of patient-centred care, and the role of judicious inaction in certain contexts. These lessons can be extrapolated for use in more resource rich or specialised settings such as academic hospitals throughout Europe.
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Footnotes
Contributors JMC performed the data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data for the work with oversight from EM. Both authors made substantial contributions to the conception and design of the work. Both authors were involved in the drafting (JMC) and revising of the work (EM and JMC). JMC and EM gave final approval of the version to be published. JMC and EM are in agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Obtained.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.