Clinical uncertainty: is it a problem in the doctor‐patient relationship?

The evidence suggests that only rarely does clinical uncertainty present management problems for the doctor, and that the image of the patient being duped by medical or bourgeois ideology is inaccurate.

Abstract

Abstract There has been little consideration of the implications of clinical uncertainty about diagnosis, prognosis and treatment although these uncertainties might represent a real threat to professional autonomy. This paper, using evidence from a range of empirical studies, examines whether in the everyday practice of medicine clinical uncertainty is a real threat to professional autonomy. The evidence suggests that only rarely does clinical uncertainty present management problems for the doctor. The evidence also suggests that the image of the patient being duped by medical or bourgeois ideology, as presented in the work of some macro theorists, is inaccurate.