ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2026
What do patients and clinicians think about continuity in general practice in England? a qualitative study.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Maintaining continuity in fragmented healthcare systems.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2026Article
- What do patients and clinicians think about interventions which prioritise continuity for certain patients in primary care?BMC primary care · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRelational continuity - an ongoing therapeutic relationship between a patient and a clinician - has long been a hallmark of general practice. However, its prevalence in England has declined over the past decade amid increasing demand, workforce shortages, and structural changes in primary care delivery.
aimTo explore patient and clinician views on continuity in general practice, and understand the factors influencing these perspectives. DESIGN AND
settingA qualitative study using interviews and focus groups conducted in England between July 2024 and February 2025.
methodSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 primary care staff, and six focus groups were held with 40 patients. Staff were recruited through team contacts and snowballing. Patients were recruited through adverts in general practices. Inductive thematic analysis was informed by theoretical models of continuity, Reeve and Byng's United Model of Generalism, and the biopsychosocial model of care. Data were coded using NVivo software.
resultsFour themes were identified: many patients lack experience of continuity and struggle to understand its value; patients and clinicians often prioritise other elements of care, such as quick access, over continuity; views on the value of continuity are shaped by beliefs about the role of general practice; and there is scepticism about the feasibility of restoring continuity within current system constraints.
conclusionWe may be reaching a tipping point, whereby a critical mass of patients views general practice solely as a method of accessing biomedical services from whichever staff member is available. If we want to improve continuity, we need to act before changes in attitudes and care delivery make change an impossibility.
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.