The power of personal care: the value of the patient–GP consultation
Open accessAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a dramatic shift from face-to-face to remote consulting within general practice. There have been some important gains in terms of travelling for patients and flexible working for general practice teams. However, there have been losses too. Urgent GP cancer referrals were estimated to be at 42% in April 2020 compared with the year before.1 Digital-first approaches, now widespread, can paradoxically increase overall GP workload and a recent study warns of extra GP work by up to a third.2 Vigilance and open minds are needed. As we move forward and while preparing for a busy winter, it is timely to decide which changes should be kept and under what conditions. Research has illuminated the considerable value of the human side of general practice. Over 20 years ago we learned that longer consultations and the patient knowing the GP are significantly associated with enablement — an important outcome …
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Remote consulting makes the personal care afforded by the extended, face-to-face "long consultation" more difficult.
“Our findings affirmed published claims that remote consulting is cognitively burdensome (54), excludes the physical touch on which the therapeutic relationship has traditionally depended (55), threatens continuity of care (7), brings greater clinical uncertainty, and makes the personal care afforded by the extended, face-to-face “long consultation” more difficult (8, 56, 57).”
From Planning and Evaluating Remote Consultation Services: A New Conceptual Framework Incorporating Complexity and Practical Ethics (2021) · cites this paper as [56]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Irving, G., Neves, A. L., Dambha-Miller, H., Oishi, A., Tagashira, H., Verho, A., & Holden, J. (2017) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017902 · Cited by 1,083 · see citing works
Estimating the Attributable Cost of Physician Burnout in the United States
Han, S., Shanafelt, T. D., Sinsky, C. A., Awad, K. M., Dyrbye, L. N., Fiscus, L. C., Trockel, M., & Goh, J. (2019) · Annals of Internal Medicine · doi:10.7326/m18-1422 · Cited by 939 · see citing works
Gray, D. P., Sidaway‐Lee, K., White, E., Thorne, A., & Evans, P. H. (2018) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2017-021161 · Cited by 766 · see citing works
Self-citationCanale, S. D., Louis, D. Z., Maio, V., Wang, X., Rossi, G., Hojat, M., & Gonnella, J. S. (2012) · Academic Medicine · doi:10.1097/acm.0b013e3182628fbf · Cited by 512 · see citing works
Barker, I., Steventon, A., & Deeny, S. R. (2017) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.j84 · Cited by 476 · see citing works
Primary medical care continuity and patient mortality: a systematic review
Baker, R., Freeman, G. K., Haggerty, J. L., Bankart, M. J., & Nockels, K. H. (2020) · British Journal of General Practice · doi:10.3399/bjgp20x712289 · Cited by 331 · see citing works
Provider Continuity in Family Medicine: Does It Make a Difference for Total Health Care Costs?
Maeseneer, J. M. D. (2003) · The Annals of Family Medicine · doi:10.1370/afm.75 · Cited by 170 · see citing works
The Impact of Digital-First Consultations on Workload in General Practice: Modeling Study
Salisbury, C., Murphy, M., & Duncan, P. (2020) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/18203 · Cited by 125 · see citing works
Dambha‐Miller, H., Feldman, A. L., Kinmonth, A. L., & Griffin, S. J. (2019) · The Annals of Family Medicine · doi:10.1370/afm.2421 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
Factors influencing consultation length in general/family practice
Orton, P. K., & Gray, D. P. (2016) · Family Practice · doi:10.1093/fampra/cmw056 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Pereira Gray D, Sidaway-Lee K, White E, et al. Continuity of care with doctors: a systematic review of continuity of care and mortality. BMJ Open 2018; 8: e021161.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Greenhalgh, T., Rosen, R., Shaw, S. E., Byng, R., Faulkner, S., Finlay, T., Grundy, E., Husain, L., Hughes, G., Leone, C., et al. (2021) · Frontiers in Digital Health · doi:10.3389/fdgth.2021.726095 · Cited by 173 · see citing works
“Our findings affirmed published claims that remote consulting is cognitively burdensome (54), excludes the physical touch on which the therapeutic relationship has traditionally depended (55), threatens continuity of care (7), brings greater clinical uncertainty, and makes the personal care afforded by the extended, f…”
BackgroundEl reto de la pandemia de la COVID-19 para la Atención Primaria
Iparraguirre, S. T., Álvarez, R. M., Martínez, I. P., & de la semFYC, J. P. Y. D. (2021) · Revista Clínica de Medicina de Familia · doi:10.55783/rcmf.140208 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Binder-Olibrowska, K. W., Wrzesińska, M. A., & Godycki-Ćwirko, M. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph19116357 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
A crisis of identity: what is the essence of general practice?
Shah, R., Ahluwalia, S., & Spicer, J. (2021) · British Journal of General Practice · doi:10.3399/bjgp21x715745 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Relational care and epistemic injustice
Shah, R., Ahluwalia, S., & Spicer, J. (2023) · Primary Health Care Research & Development · doi:10.1017/s1463423623000555 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
The Gatekeeper's Dilemma: Unpacking the Complexity of Low‐Value Care in General Practice
Spalletta, O., & Green, S. (2025) · Sociology of Health & Illness · doi:10.1111/1467-9566.70034 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
GP workforce sustainability to maximise effective and equitable patient care: a realist review
Owen-Boukra, E., Burford, B. C., Cohen, T., Duddy, C., Dunn, H., Fadia, V., Goodman, C. M., Henry, C., Lamb, E. I., Ogden, M., et al. (2025) · British Journal of General Practice · doi:10.3399/bjgp.2025.0061 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Functioning of Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic – Review of Literature
Haczyński, J., Trojniak, A., Jarowicz, K., & Skaza, D. (2021) · Problemy Zarządzania - Management Issues · doi:10.7172/1644-9584.92.4 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Johnston, J. L. (2022) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-981-19-2964-9_5
- Authors
- Brown, V. T., Gregory, S., & Gray, D. P.
- Affiliations
- Queen Mary University of London (GB)
- Health Education England (GB)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- Venue
- British Journal of General Practice
- Published
- 2020-11-26
- Volume
- 70
- Issue
- 701
- Pages
- 596-597
- ISSN
- 0960-1643 (ISSN-L)
- 1478-5242
- PMC
- PMC7707055
- OpenAlex
- W3109403133
- Cited by
- 10
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4
- FWCI
- 1.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- British Journal of General Practice (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Queen Mary Research Online (Queen Mary University of London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (CL-2015-19-004)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Primary Care and Health Outcomes
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Healthcare Systems and Technology
- Keywords
- personal care, enablement, general practice, COVID-19 pandemic, teleconsultation, GP workload, physician-patient relationship, consultation time
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Physician-Patient Relations, Referral and Consultation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
