In a complex juxtaposition between the providers of care and intermediate support group on the one hand and the patient and the community on the other, it will not be unusual to expect conflicts between the two groups.
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The nature of relationship between the two group’s influences community relationship, and on this relationship depend the image of the hospital.
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Relevant communication and information must reach the user community in order to promote their participation and involvement.
A community that is well-informed and aware of its social responsibilities can become an effective instrument of cooperation and support.
However, the unpleasant fact that this community participation can be distorted by sectional interests trying to use the community as a pressure group (to attain specific objectives which are not always compatible with the paramount aims of the hospital programmes) need also to be remembered.
People go to the hospital with high expectations believing that every disease is fully and quickly curable. The average health consumer regards contemporary hospitals as the panacea to all his health problems.
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They cannot appreciate the limitations of the hospital. There is an increasing demand for better care and quick cure.
Besides giving care to every patient public expects sympathetic understanding of the behaviour of the patient and his or her attendants and relatives
This shift has necessitated a new approach to doctor-patient and hospital-community relationship.
On the other hand, some questionable assumptions on which the value system in hospital is based are still prevalent among medical personnel.
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These are that cure is more important than the care of patients, that the staff assume power over the patients, that every problem has a solution, and that death is the worst thing that can happen to man.
Respect for the dignity of the patient is one of the most basic rights and needs of the patient. Concern for the care of the human being as a whole needs contribution from everyone working in the hospital.
The hospital is like a federal system with several departments each enjoying considerable autonomy and discretion in its management of work. The great challenge is one of coordination.
Whether it wishes to stress its links with the community and its human and personal character, or its power and glory as a temple of healing will depend upon the hospital itself.
From starting as a work of charity, hospital care has developed into a science with many specialisations, to a high perfection industry, but still a social institution which yet remains to be integrated with society.
There has to be a growing interest in the importance of human well-being, in the integration of health services provided.