Who determines "Quality of life"?

I was wondering, who actually determines the "quality of life"

Is it a doctor, parent, state, other health professionals or patient themselves. (what is the patient is not competent)

Reply 1

AlanAnonymouss

10

Depends on many factors. Sometimes a patient won’t have the capacity to evaluate their own quality of life for many different reasons. I would say the doctor has the greatest influence on this evaluation though they would definitely look at the situation holistically.

Reply 2

Arima

16

often a patient judges their own quality of life through certain tests/questions, theres a couple official ones out there... its the basis of whether healthcare professionals/pharmaceutical companies/NICE judge whether a therapy is worth the money - by how much it might increase the quality of life or by how many extra years added on. from my understanding anyway lol

Reply 3

username1236842

8

What has this got to do with people thinking of studying medicine? This isn't a "get your medical ethics homework essays answered" forum.

Reply 4

AthenaSphinx

OP

10

Original post by AlanAnonymouss

Depends on many factors. Sometimes a patient won’t have the capacity to evaluate their own quality of life for many different reasons. I would say the doctor has the greatest influence on this evaluation though they would definitely look at the situation holistically.

Thank you, I get what you mean - doctors do have a large say especially when keeping the best interest of the patient in mind

Reply 5

AthenaSphinx

OP

10

Original post by Arima

often a patient judges their own quality of life through certain tests/questions, theres a couple official ones out there... its the basis of whether healthcare professionals/pharmaceutical companies/NICE judge whether a therapy is worth the money - by how much it might increase the quality of life or by how many extra years added on. from my understanding anyway lol

Thank you! What if the child was incompetent? Is that the QALY system/guideline idea (How much it might increase the quality of life/by ow many years QALY = 1, 1 extra year idea) ?

Reply 6

AthenaSphinx

OP

10

Thank you so much! I understand that NICE make sure that cost effective medication is on the market, other than that I had no idea of QALY, so a massive thank you to you!
I was wondering what guidelines could support a doctor making a decision to withdraw treatment/not give the treatment if it was decided by the QALY that it was not going to help the patient? (In the best interest of the patient)
There are so many guidelines - GMC, NICE etc.

Reply 7

AthenaSphinx

OP

10

Original post by taysidefrog

What has this got to do with people thinking of studying medicine? This isn't a "get your medical ethics homework essays answered" forum.

Ha haa, no I am not doing an essay on this question. This is a question I was thinking about and I wanted to see how others actually approach such a difficult question. We all have different view on who actually determines the quality of life of a patient - patient, parents, doctor, state, NHS, NICE etc. It is a very interesting question

Who determines "Quality of life"?

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