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Editorial
Primary care
The future for primary care: increased choice for patients
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  1. R Evans,
  2. A Edwards,
  3. G Elwyn
  1. Department of Primary Care, University of Wales Swansea Clinical School, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK Correspondence to: Dr R Evans, Department of Primary Care, University of Wales Swansea Clinical Schoolk, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK; rhodri.evans@btinternet.com

    https://doi.org/10.1136/qhc.12.2.83

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      Goodbye primary care—please hold and you will be connected to a new definition . . .

      Primary care is changing. No longer is it confined exclusively to the GP surgery or health centre, and nor are the routine contacts restricted to “office hours”. There have been many recent consumer driven changes to the delivery of health care in the UK. “Walk in” centres—NHS and private—provide a service to consumers who find themselves unable to access GP surgeries.1 Many people, for instance, may commute long distances to work and find their GP opening hours are too restrictive. On the other end of the social spectrum, homeless patients often prefer to access “drop in centres”2 where the services are better orientated to their needs. Another development is the UK telephone and online service, NHS Direct, which offers patients both information and advice—for many it is now their first contact with the health service.3

      But the most dramatic change to primary care lies in consumer …

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