Dr Alexis Paton

Director, Centre for Health and Society Aston University

  • Birmingham

Dr Paton examines the impact that society has on health. Her research focuses on how ethics and the social sciences can improve healthcare.

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Aston University expert to join panel discussion hosted by The Independent on how to heal the NHS

Dr Alexis Paton is the director of the Centre for Health and Society at Aston University The online event, How to heal the NHS, will take place on 27 October at 18.30 BST Experts will examine how to secure the future of the UK’s health system. Dr Alexis Paton, director of the Centre for Health and Society at Aston University, will be joining a panel of experts to examine how to secure the future of the UK's health system at an on online event on 27 October at 18.30 BST. How to heal the NHS is the Independent’s latest panel discussion in its virtual event series. It will be chaired by health correspondent Rebecca Thomas and the panel will also include Hannah Barham-Brown, a GP and deputy leader of the Women’s Equality Party, and Dr Suzanne Tyler the Royal College of Midwives executive director. Participants will have the opportunity to listen to the experts speaking exclusively with The Independent on this topic and have the chance to ask them a question either pre-submitted ahead of the event or during it using the Q&A box on Zoom. Dr Alexis Paton, director of the Centre for Health and Society, Aston University said: “The concerns about the state and stability of the NHS were deeply entrenched before 2020 and then of course the pandemic hit. “The additional pressures and longer waiting times for appointments and treatment have only grown following a time when NHS staff have experienced stresses like they never have before. The situation has led to increased fears of privatisation and increasing staff shortages. “I welcome this opportunity to contribute to a debate about such a vitally important topic.” To find out how to sign up to the event for free click on the Eventbrite page.

Dr Alexis Paton

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Biography

Dr Alexis Paton is a medical ethicist and sociologist. Her work examines areas of ethical concern in medicine, with a focus on health inequality, patient safety, decision-making in medicine, and healthcare improvement. She is an expert in medical ethics, medical sociology and social epidemiology. She does practical research designed to improve health policy and practice.

She has expertise in and can speak to several topics within these disciplines including:

• COVID-19 ethics
• Pandemic public health
• The impact of COVID-19 on BAME groups
• Health inequalities
• The social determinants of health and illness
• Patient autonomy
• Maternity safety
• Neonatal care
• Fertility preservation
• Medical ethics education.

She is currently the Chair of the Committee on Ethical Issues in Medicine for the Royal College of Physicians and a Trustee of the Institute of Medical Ethics. She writes a regular column for the Independent, and all her pieces can be viewed at: https://www.independent.co.uk/author/alexis-paton

Areas of Expertise

Health Inequalities
Health Improvement
Sociology of Health
Bioethics
Medical Ethics
Medical Sociology
Qualitative Research
COVID-19 Pandemic

Education

Newcastle University

PhD

Sociology

2015

University of British Columbia

MA

Philosophy

2010

University of King’s College

BSc

Biology

2007

Affiliations

  • Royal College of Physicians : Chair of the Committee on Ethical Issues in Medicine
  • Institute of Medical Ethics : Trustee

Media Appearances

Alexia Paten - Author Page

The Indepedent  

Dr Alexis Paton is a lecturer in social epidemiology and the sociology of health and co-director of the Centre for Health and Society at Aston University. Dr Paton is also chair of the Committee on Ethical Issues in Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians and a trustee of the Institute of Medical Ethics

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Everything affects our health – even Trussonomics

The Indepedent  online

2022-10-01

We have always known that cold and damp houses cause illness, but we often forget that illness costs the NHS money

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I’ve seen the future of the NHS – with enough money, it can thrive

The Indepedent  online

2022-09-03

How to heal the NHS: We must now openly address the relationship between wealth and health by linking the healthcare system with the social care system, writes Alexis Paton

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Research Focus

Sociological theory and Qualitative research methods

Improving healthcare services

Dr Alexis Paton's research focuses on how sociological theory and qualitative research methods can be combined with bioethical frameworks to improve healthcare services. She is particularly interested in how decision-making occurs in practice in the NHS. Using this sociological bioethics lens, her research identifies where existing policies and guidelines on decision-making require re-evaluating to facilitate improved support for patients and staff making healthcare decisions. By examining decision-making empirically, using qualitative methods, Alexis' research also explores the important role of the social sciences in the development of bioethical theories that are used in everyday medical practice.

Research Grants

Understanding Barriers to Healthy and Sustainable Communities Projec

BCHC’ £14922

2021-ongoing

This project aims to understand health inequalities in deprived wards in East Birmingham. It's findings will shape BCHC’s approach to local health challenges affecting people living in these wards.

Planning Ahead

Aston University, Collaboration with Cardiff and York University

2021-ongoing

This project examines the impact that an online resource for advance care planning can have on supporting and facilitating discussions between the public and their healthcare providers about advance care planning.

Articles

Medical versus social egg freezing: the importance of future choice for women's decision-making

Monash Bioethics Review

Michiel De Proost, Alexis Paton

2022

While the literature on oncofertility decision-making was central to the bioethics debate on social egg freezing when the practice emerged in the late 2000s, there has been little discussion juxtaposing the two forms of egg freezing since. This article offers a new perspective on this debate by comparing empirical qualitative data of two previously conducted studies on medical and social egg freezing. We re-analysed the interview data of the two studies and did a thematic analysis combined with interdisciplinary collaborative auditing for empirical ethics projects. Despite their different contexts, major similarities in women's decision-making and reasoning were found. We developed two main common themes. Firstly, women felt a clear need to plan for future options. Secondly, they manipulated decision-times by postponing definitive decisions and making micro-decisions. The comparison highlights that the passage of time and the preservation of future choice seems to permeate all aspects of the patient experiences in both studies. As a result of considering real-world lived experiences, we suggest that there are many overlaps in women's reasoning about egg freezing regardless of why they are making a decision to freeze. These overlaps are morally relevant and thus need to be further integrated into the existing arguments that have been canvassed in the flourishing egg freezing and fertility preservation debates across the field, and in policy and practice globally.

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Managerial thinking in neonatal care: a qualitative study of place of care decision-making for preterm babies born at 27–31 weeks gestation in England

BMJ Open

Caroline Cupit*, Alexis Paton, Elaine Boyle, Thillagavathie Pillay, Natalie Armstrong, Victor L Banda, Vasiliki Bountziouka, Kelvin Dawson, Elizabeth S Draper, Abdul Qader T Ismail, Bradley Manktelow, Neena Modi, Oliver Rivero-Arias, Sarah E Seaton, Miaoqing Yang,

2022

Objectives: Preterm babies born between 27 and 31 weeks of gestation in England are usually born and cared for in either a neonatal intensive care unit or a local neonatal unit—with such units forming part of Operational Delivery Networks. As part of a national project seeking to optimise service delivery for this group of babies (OPTI-PREM), we undertook qualitative research to better understand how decisions about place of birth and care are made and operationalised. Design: Qualitative analysis of ethnographic observation data in neonatal units and semi-structured interviews with neonatal staff. Setting: Six neonatal units across two neonatal networks in England. Two were neonatal intensive care units and four were local neonatal units. Participants: Clinical staff (n=15) working in neonatal units, and people present in neonatal units during periods of observation. Results: In the context of real-world neonatal practice, with multiple (and rapidly-evolving) uncertainties relating to mothers, babies and unit/network capacity, ‘best place of care’ protocols were only one element of much more complex decision-making processes. Staff often made judgements from a less-than-ideal starting point, and were forced to respond to evolving clinical and organisational factors. In particular, we report that managerial considerations relating to demand and capacity organised decision-making; demand and capacity management was time-consuming and generated various pressures on families, and tensions between staff. Conclusions: Researchers and policymakers should take account of the organisational context within which place of care decisions are made. The dominance of demand and capacity management considerations is likely to limit the impact of other improvement interventions, such as initiatives to integrate families into the neonatal care provision. Demand and capacity management is an important element of neonatal care that may be overlooked, but significantly organises how care is delivered.

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The Surveillance of Pregnant Bodies in the Age of Digital Health: Ethical Dilemmas

The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Bioethics

Alexia Paton

2022

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