A protest movement in a private clinic: an analysis of a patients' strike.
Behind this protest movement among chronic patients on dialysis was a dispute between the specialist who headed the service and the director of the clinic. This dispute eventually involved the patients, who felt that the quality of care was at stake. Their 'therapy strike', as exceptional as it is in the world of illness, brings to mind forms of action used by the consumer movement or by labour unions. The reasons that this small group of patients interrupted treatment are analysed in terms of their relations to medicine and their conceptions of illness.
D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003255:Consumer Organizations / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000628:therapy*; D010297:Paris; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000592:standards*