Background: In 2008, the English Department of Health appointed 16 ‘Integrated Care Pilots’
which used a range of approaches to provide better integrated care. We report qualitative …

Objectives: In this paper, we seek to clarify what is known about self-care in chronic illness
and the impact of lay-led self-management programmes. The main focus of the paper is the …

Objective To evaluate a “telephone first” approach, in which all patients wanting to see a
general practitioner (GP) are asked to speak to a GP on the phone before being given an …

The following year saw further confirmation that promoting the self-management of chronic
disorders is a priority in official British thinking about healthcare. The NHS Plan set out a …

Reaching a decision about whether and when to visit the doctor can be a difficult process for
the patient. An early visit may cause the doctor to wonder why the patient chose to consult …

PURPOSE To examine how family physicians’, patients’, and trained clinical raters’ assessments
of physician-patient communication compare by analysis of individual appointments. …

Recent UK policy has highlighted the importance of a young person's family in their care and
the need for health professionals to work in partnership with young people and their parents…

Objective To understand patients’ views on a ‘telephone-first’ approach, in which all
appointment requests in general practice are followed by a telephone call from the general …

Background To better manage patient demand, some general practices have implemented a
‘telephone first’ approach in which all patients seeking a face-to-face appointment first have …

Background The increasing difficulty experienced by general practices in meeting patient
demand is leading to new approaches being tried, including greater use of telephone …