Continuity of care beyond access: measuring resolution rather than contact
Author(s)
Jerjes, Waseem
Majeed, Azeem
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Health services now organise and evaluate performance around metrics such as speed, access routes and activity: how quickly a request is processed, how many contacts are delivered and how many patients are seen. Continuity of care in contrast has been steadily downgraded in favour of these alternative measures.1 This shift is understandable in health systems facing high demand for care, but it has had both clinical and system consequences. By treating continuity as optional, health systems have stopped routinely monitoring whether care remains coherent over time, whether responsibility is held across healthcare encounters and whether complex problems are resolved rather than being repeatedly revisited.
Date Issued
2026-08-01
Date Acceptance
2026-06-14
Citation
Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2026, 119 (8), pp.221-224
ISSN
0141-0768
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Start Page
221
End Page
224
Journal / Book Title
Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
Volume
119
Issue
8
Copyright Statement
© The Royal Society of Medicine 2026 This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/42357922
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Date Publish Online
2026-06-25