Bill is a 68 year old male with two grown children in their 40’s. He is a widow living on his own in Cambridgeshire. Bill runs his own business as an electrician, he is also a dog owner leading an active social life. Bills children visit on the weekends, but they have their own families to tend to. Recently, Bill has been complaining of stomach pain but neglected to report it to his doctor. After falling down the stairs and breaking his leg, he was admitted to the hospital and chose to disclose his stomach issues. After some tests Bill was found to have a colon tumour, which was removed via surgery. The surgery is to be followed up with a treatment plan of chemotherapy. His leg is now out of the cast but it still causes him pain. Any surgery, any medical issues mental or physical have both short and long term effects on overall quality of life, in this essay I am going to discuss how Bills issues have affected his overall wellbeing.
To assess how Bill’s quality of life has been affected, we will first look at Doyal and Goughs’ theory on basic and subjective needs, in addition to this we will also comment on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Doyal and Gough suggest that the objective needs are almost universally agreed, they are basic living requirements and are things that can be observed by others. These requirements include: physical health, survival and autonomy. Doyal and Gough argue that these aspects of life must be of a certain standard for an individual to healthily participate in society, without which may result in physical and psychological harm to the individual. Objective wellbeing or Quality of life can be measured in terms of life expectancy, health and social issues, income, social contacts, education and finally employment. In contrast to the objective, we have the subjective needs - these are often variable throughout societies, cultures and individuals. They are often deemed