Do the British value continuity of care?

When a patient seeks resolution of a healthcare problem from a practitioner in the private sector, there is an expectation that the whole of the con-dition will be orchestrated by the patient’s chosen medical practitioner. The process may involve as-sistance from colleagues, but the bringing together of the various threads of this endeavour would be coordinated by the patient’s chosen doctor. This is the epitome of continuity of care. Until recent times this untrammelled patient experience was the norm in NHS hospital practice. Today hospital ac-tivity has become impersonalized with up to 70% of medical emergency admissions finding them-selves on the ‘pass the patient ’ merry-go-round. In the past it was the doctors ’ accumulated ex