How should we refer to people attending sexual health services; patients, clients, users or customers?

Abstract

Within the healthcare domain, commercial-sector terminology such as ‘client’, ‘customer’ and ‘user’ are replacing the previously acceptable collective noun, ‘patient’. Is the term we use important to the individuals accessing our services? A paper survey collected the responses of 581 individuals attending the service between August and October 2019. Overall, 372/496 (75%) (95% CI = 71.2–78.8%) unique responses reported a preference to the term ‘patient’, while only 92/496 (19%) (95% CI = 15.1–22.0%) preferred ‘client’, 23/496(5%) (95% CI = 2.8–6.5%) ‘customer’ and 9/496 (2%) (95% CI = 0.6–3.0%) ‘user’. In line with other published data, we acknowledge that people attending our service prefer to be referred to as ‘patient’ above all else.