‘You ought to be supported by the state!’

Richardson’s Pilgrimage uses illness to examine the operations of sympathy and the structures of care and responsibility. Pilgrimage is, in part, a realization of the aspiration to write a ‘dental novel’, where the surgery setting allows the depiction of a rich and distinctive social world. Consequently, the chapter shows the meaning of illness to be socially and politically determined. Analysis of the mechanisms of sympathy, empathy, and narrative method in the surgery leads to a discussion of public healthcare policy. Pilgrimage reflects the contemporary debate between sociological and moral models of healthcare, exemplified by the Fabian Society and the Charity Organisation Society. Pilgrimage balances, therefore, individual, sympathy-driven care against systematic, disinterested care.

SPECIALIST SERVICE IN LIVER TRANSPLANT IN A UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: A CASE STUDY

ABSTRACT Objective: was to describe the flow of a specialist service in the care of liver transplant in a university hospital. Method: a qualitative research in the form of a case study, performed in a transplant service in southern Brazil. Data collection occurred from November 2013 to February 2014 through the triangulation of data, document analysis, structured interviews with 11 professional and semi direct observations interviews. Data analysis was performed by analysis of thematic content. Results: describes the flow of service and revealed the involvement of a multidisciplinary team in a cohesive manner, with competence recognized by patients and other sectors of the institution and structural deficiencies in care service for immunosuppressed patients. Conclusion: it was found that there is a need for studies that address the structures of care in liver transplantation services and to evaluate the impact of the quality of the life expectancy and proper recovery of persons undergoing liver transplantation.