Observational studyBMJ open2016
Effect of a national requirement to introduce named accountable general practitioners for patients aged 75 or older in England: regression discontinuity analysis of general practice utilisation and continuity of care.
Observational study in BMJ open, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Access or continuity: a zero sum game? A systematic review of the literature examining the relationship between access and continuity in primary healthcare.BMC primary care · 2025Pooled it
- Uptake of patient enrolment in primary care and associated factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC primary care · 2025Pooled it
- 'It's what we should be doing anyway': using financial incentives to promote relational continuity in Australian General Practice-a nested case study analysis.Family practice · 2025Trial
- Effectiveness of Quality Incentive Payments in General Practice (EQuIP-GP) cluster randomized trial: impact on patient-reported experience.Family practice · 2022Trial
- Continuity of care in the context of a primary health care reform: a follow-up after the SwedishScandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Continuity of care in UK primary care: a scoping review of measures, challenges, and future interventions.Primary health care research & development · 2026Article
- The impact of patient enrolment in primary care on continuity and quality of care around the world, 2014-2024, and lessons for Australia: a scoping review.The Medical journal of Australia · 2025Article
- Impact of changes in primary care attachment: a scoping review.Family medicine and community health · 2025Article
- Enabling patient-physician continuity in Swedish primary care: the importance of a named GP. A registry-based observational study.BJGP open · 2024Article
- Article
- Continuity and discontinuity of care among older patients in Danish general practice: a retrospective cohort study.BJGP open · 2023Article
- Assessing the impact of clinical coordination interventions on the continuity of care for patients with chronic conditions: participatory action research in five Latin American countries.Health policy and planning · 2022Article
- Does Social Pension Expansion Relieve Depression and Decrease Medical Costs? Evidence From the Rural Elderly in China.International journal of public health · 2022Article
- How and to what extent can pensions facilitate increased use of health services by older people: evidence from social pension expansion in rural China.BMC health services research · 2020Article
- Article
- A method for measuring continuity of care in day-to-day general practice: a quantitative analysis of appointment data.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2019Article
- Tackling multimorbidity in primary care: is relational continuity the missing ingredient?The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2019Article
- Predicting declines in perceived relationship continuity using practice deprivation scores: a longitudinal study in primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2018Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo assess the effect of introducing named accountable general practitioners (GPs) for patients aged 75 years on patterns of general practice utilisation, including continuity of care.
designRegression discontinuity design applied to data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink to estimate the treatment effect for compliers aged 75.
setting200 general practices in England.
participants255 469 patients aged between 65 and 85, after excluding those aged 75.
interventionFrom April 2014, general practices in England were required to offer patients aged 75 or over a named accountable GP. This study compared having named accountable GPs for patients aged just over 75 with usual care provided for patients just under 75. OUTCOMES: Number of contacts (face-to-face or telephone) with GPs, longitudinal continuity of care (usual provider of care, or UPC, index), number of referrals to specialist care and numbers of common diagnostic tests. Outcomes were measured over 9 months following assignment to a named accountable GP and for a comparable period for those unassigned.
resultsThe proportion of patients with a named accountable GP increased from 3.5% to 79.8% at age 75. No statistically significant effects were detected for continuity of care (estimated treatment effect 0.00, 95% CI -0.01 to 0.02) or the number of GP contacts per person (estimated treatment effect -0.11, 95% CI -0.31 to 0.09) over 9 months. No significant change was seen in the number of referrals, blood pressure or HbA1c diagnostic tests per person. A statistically significant treatment effect of -0.05 cholesterol tests per person (95% CI -0.07 to -0.02) was estimated; however, sensitivity analysis indicated that this effect predated the introduction of named accountable GPs.
conclusionsContinuity of care is valued by patients, but the named accountable GP initiative did not improve continuity of care or change patterns of GP utilisation in the first 9 months of the policy.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.