Dehumanization of health care

Degrading medical treatment
Abusive treatment of women in labour
Undignified medical treatment

Nature

Patients are being perceived and treated as things or nonpersons or lesser persons without any warmth in human interaction. The same social forces that contribute to dehumanization in economic and political milieus lead to dehumanization in health care: aggregation of services, bureaucratization of services, secularization of values, professionalization of skills, and proliferation of technologies.

Incidence

Dehumanization of health care is a pervasive issue affecting both developed and developing countries, with reports of patients experiencing neglect, lack of empathy, and impersonal treatment in hospitals and clinics worldwide. Studies indicate that such experiences are particularly prevalent in overburdened health systems, where staff shortages and high patient volumes contribute to the erosion of compassionate care, impacting millions annually and undermining trust in medical institutions.
In 2023, a widely reported incident at a public hospital in New Delhi, India, highlighted this problem when patients were found unattended for hours, with some left on floors due to overcrowding and staff indifference, sparking national outrage and calls for reform.

Claim

The highly technical nature of hospitals and specialist practices is bewildering. Many patients do not understand what is going on and want someone to listen to them, to make them feel less like an object.

The architectural design of modern British hospitals is soulless; aesthetically pleasing dimensions that would provide an atmosphere of healing are absent from modern hospital buildings.