Mistrust in practice. An ethnographic study of suspicion in general medical practice in the aftermath of COVID-19

Trust in health authorities around the world is in serious crisis. Among the underlying factors are increased health care costs as a result of increased life expectancy, dependence on advanced medical equipment and the spread of for-profit care. COVID-19 has worsened an already alarming situation and at the same time demonstrated a widespread mistrust that many feel in relation to care from health care providers, as well as the state and authorities in general.

This project intends to study that mistrust in a specific context, namely primary care in Italy, a country that has been hit hard by the pandemic while its population is experiencing the effects of a crumbling public health system. Using an ethnographic investigation of two primary care clinics, this project will document the dynamics of mistrust in the situated and care-related interactions taking place between patients and general practitioners in Italy in the aftermath of COVID-19.
The study will highlight mistrust not only as the absence or lack of trust, but also as an interactional and structural resource and force in its own right. With this, the project will also contribute to debates about the "crisis of trust" in healthcare.

The research will contrast accepted perceptions of mistrust and analyze the multifaceted directions of mistrust in healthcare (for example, between patient–doctor or doctor–hospital administration). The study thus contributes with in-depth knowledge and new perspectives on a current and urgent challenge in healthcare, which in turn helps us to understand the complexity of mistrust in a time fringed by health crises.