ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2020
Relational continuity and patients' perception of GP trust and respect: a qualitative study.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 5 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
44 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Patient perceptions of advance care planning within primary care: a systematic review of facilitators and barriers.BMC primary care · 2025Pooled it
- What patients want from access to UK general practice: systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Pooled 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
- Patient reported measures of continuity of care and health outcomes: a systematic review.BMC primary care · 2024Pooled it
- Primary care micro-teams: an international systematic review of patient and healthcare professional perspectives.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2023Pooled it
- 'We can go hand in hand' - patients with COPD and their experiences of relational continuity of care in Swedish primary care: a qualitative study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Which aspects of continuity of care in primary care are associated with better self-rated health? A cross-sectional study among older adults in Berlin.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Article
- Deprescribing Decisions in Swiss Primary Care: Low Concordance Between General Practitioners and Older Adults.Journal of general internal medicine · 2026Article
- "We do what needs to be done": caregivers' experiences of healthcare and support for people with multiple long-term conditions in the last year of life.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Continuity of care in UK primary care: a scoping review of measures, challenges, and future interventions.Primary health care research & development · 2026Article
- Continuity of care and patient-reported experiences in Norwegian general practice: are they linked, and does the measurement of continuity matter?Family practice · 2026Article
- What do patients and clinicians think about continuity in general practice in England? a qualitative study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- General practitioners' relational familiarity with home-dwelling patients in the palliative phase: Basis - or bias - for individualised care.Palliative care and social practice · 2026Article
- Perceptions of deprescribing for patients with limited life expectancy in primary care.Primary health care research & development · 2025Article
- The role of racial and socioeconomic status bias on medication prescribing practices: a qualitative study of family physician perspectives.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- 'It gives a sense of purpose': a survey exploring GP registrars' views on relational continuity of care.BJGP open · 2025Article
- Quantifying, Understanding and Enhancing Relational Continuity of Care (QUERCC): a mixed-methods protocol.BMJ open · 2025Article
- The GP's a stranger: an interpretive phenomenological analysis exploring patient experiences of changed access to primary care in the management of long-term conditions.Frontiers in health services · 2025Article
- 'Why do GPs want to come here?': residents' intentions to register with new-coming GPs in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Copenhagen with a GP shortage: a qualitative study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDespite the benefits of relational continuity of care, particularly for patients with multimorbidity, the traditional model of continuity is changing. Revisiting what patients with ongoing problems want from relational continuity could encourage initiatives to achieve these within a modern healthcare system.
aimTo examine the attributes of GPs that patients with long-term conditions value most, and which attributes patients believe are facilitated by relational continuity. DESIGN AND
settingQualitative study in UK general practice.
methodA thematic analysis was carried out, based on secondary analysis of interviews with 25 patients with long-term conditions that were originally conducted to inform a patient-reported outcome measure for primary care.
resultsPatients with long-term conditions wanted their GPs to be clinically competent, to examine, listen to, care for, and take time with them, irrespective of whether they have seen them before. They believed that relational continuity facilitates a GP knowing their history, giving consistent advice, taking responsibility and action, and trusting and respecting them. Patients acknowledged practical difficulties and safety issues in achieving the first three of these without relational continuity. However, patients felt that GPs should trust and respect them even when continuity was not possible.
conclusionPolicy initiatives promoting continuity with a GP or healthcare team should continue. Many patients see continuity as a safety issue. When patients experience relationship discontinuity, they often feel that they are not taken seriously or believed by their GP. GPs should therefore consistently seek to visibly demonstrate trust in their patients, particularly when they have not seen them before.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.