Patients and their Problems: Situated Alliances of Patient-Centred Care and Pathway Development

It is 11:00 a.m. on a May morning in a hospital in a large city in the Netherlands. This hospital, which we will call Hospital E, is a university medical center and we are observing the work at the haematology/oncology outpatient clinic and treatment center. Most of the patients here are tertiary referrals who can no longer get the care they need in regional hospitals. Patients are referred by hospitals in the region but also by clinics throughout the Netherlands: particular forms of care offered are known to be of very high quality in Hospital E. We are witnessing a common phenomenon at this time in the morning in the treatment center of the haematology/oncology ward: all the chairs are filled by people receiving chemotherapy and there are still many patients waiting for their consultation with their haematologist or oncologist.