In this review of global trends, Nancy Daneau discusses the institutional public health challenge in earning public trust. In recent years, especially during the pandemic, trust in doctors has decreased due to various reasons; there might have been a lack of patient respect, insufficient time with patients, failure to provide information patients need, or understanding patients’ complaints or their concerns. As such, this leads to poorer health outcomes since patients are less inclined to follow doctors’ recommendations. Patients prefer to seek support from other sources they trust, which may not provide high-quality and evidence-based advice.
Nancy suggests several strategies to rebuild public trust:
- affordable and accessible healthcare;
- reliable information free of jargon;
- real-time, accessible, data-driven information, and;
- present clear, verifiable, and reproducible data to the public.
With reformed health systems inclusive of public trust, the targets of health equity, resilient workforce, coordination, knowledge transfer, and incentivization become more aligned.
Read Nancy Daneau’s work here