Abstract
The trend in ensuring adequate consumer representation across diverse activities and sectors, not least in healthcare, has been speedily implemented, sometimes at the expense of strategy. This commentary explores the concept of the consucrat as a consumer representative, presented by de Leeuw, which raised important questions regarding the way in which individuals and health services interact and collaborate. Adopting a complex services marketing lens, the position of the consucrat is discussed in relation to agency underpinning three tensions identified by de Leeuw: designation; professionalization, and; representation. For equality, professional service providers are referred to as ‘profecrats.’ Supporting de Leeuw, challenges are made to the underlying assumptions implicit in terms used around representation, the perspective that it is the consucrat only who needs to adapt, and the discourse around the competence of the consucrat. We should not be too cautious in our approach to consumer representation. Consucrats have agency – what next for the profecrat?
Highlights
In ‘The Rise of the Consucrat,’ de Leeuw[1] effectively sets out the ambiguity, contradiction and complexity of perspectives in the somewhat fuzzy rhetoric and implementation of consumer representation
If consucrat is the label of the community representative, perhaps we should refer to professional service representatives as ‘profecrats?’
Within healthcare the tensions of power, legitimacy of perspective and socio-emotional positions can be resolved through dialogic mechanisms that integrate within discussion consucrat and profecrat priorities, concerns and experiences.[13]
Summary
In ‘The Rise of the Consucrat,’ de Leeuw[1] effectively sets out the ambiguity, contradiction and complexity of perspectives in the somewhat fuzzy rhetoric and implementation of consumer representation. From a services ecosystem perspective,[14] enabling this would demand changes from the micro-level consultation upwards, upskilling consumers and professionals alike in challenging legacy assumptions in healthcare – not an insignificant task that requires a thorough understanding of dialogue and roles as explored in the two sections.
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