By Dr Martin Scurr, GP and longtime Daily Mail medical columnist
In an era of digital transformation, ‘connected care’ often risks becoming another jargon term.
But for patients, it can mean the difference between receiving the right treatment or falling through the cracks.
With four decades of clinical experience, I’ve seen firsthand how continuity of care – through patients, services and data – has evolved, and why digitisation must remain at the heart of connected care initiatives.
This need is only more urgent as NHS waiting lists continue to grow, reaching 7.41 million in August 2025, highlighting the risk of patients being left without support.
Smarter records, easier communication and shared information can help GPs do what really matters: care for their patients.
Healthcare is grappling with fractured records, GP burnout and increased patient demand. The importance of joined up care and digital solutions has never been greater.
Why seeing the same doctor still matters
Of course, there are many benefits to seeing the same doctor.
GPs accumulate knowledge on their patients, and are therefore best placed to understand their individual needs for future diagnoses or consultations.
The GP and the patient also build up a rapport, so the patient feels more comfortable in communicating their specific needs, and knowing how to communicate them to their GP.
Most importantly, patients who are more engaged in their care don’t just feel better about their healthcare experience – studies show they achieve better health outcomes.
With healthcare demand soaring and costs through the roof, successfully diagnosing patients early or preventing hospital admissions through strong continuity of care can make a real impact.
And what happens when you can’t
Continuity of care is on the decline and for many, seeing the same GP is harder than ever.
The pressure placed on healthcare providers is leading to an emphasis on delivering appointments to meet demand no matter who the doctor is, over achieving continuity of care.
And if you can’t see the same GP, patients end up repeating themselves, symptoms get missed, time between appointments increases, and poor health outcomes arise as a result.
Ultimately, it’s patient safety that suffers.
This is not to discount the fact that a new doctor can offer a fresh perspective to a patient, particularly when the ongoing relationship has not yet been established.
However, the deeper understanding that comes from repeated interactions, such as knowing the patient’s medical history, how they describe their symptoms, and accumulated insights into their health, can be lost when seeing a new GP.
Beyond this, many GPs develop long-term relationships with their patients, gaining an understanding of their lives beyond any medical concerns.
The trust that comes with this only serves to strengthen the patient–doctor bond.
The irony is that more accessibility without continuity can lead to greater demand, as more appointments are needed to get to the right treatment.
Good care = good communication
Communication lies at the heart of good care. But new patient research from Semble reveals a serious barrier: unclear, inconsistent or delayed communication is adversely impacting health, with a substantial 61 per cent of patients reporting that their mental health has been negatively affected.
That’s a lot of patients suffering due to poor communication.
Administrative constraints often keep clinicians’ hands tied in this respect. But a lack of communication can quickly erode trust, and trust and patient safety go hand in hand.
Dr Martin Scurr
When this trust goes the relationship unravels, and the survey shows where this leads: more than a third of patients (38 per cent) feel uncomfortable raising information they’ve found online with their clinician, while only 13 per cent feel “very comfortable” doing so.
Without open dialogue, patients risk leaving concerns unaddressed and misinformation unchallenged.
Gaps in communication, no matter how small, can snowball into far bigger health issues and place unnecessary strain on services.
A call for tech solutions that support professionals (not the other way around)
So, what’s the solution?
According to the research, patients are calling for better staffing levels to reduce workload and minimise errors (26 per cent).
This was followed by using technology for earlier problem detection (18 per cent) – supporting the current shift towards preventative healthcare – and by improving patient-staff communication through digital tools (16 per cent).
All of these factors emerge and persist from fragmented systems.
It’s imperative that healthcare practices implement a digital clinical platform that makes this fragmentation near impossible.
One that brings everything under one roof, that contains a range of integrations, that can connect to electronic health records and any critical business systems, like accounting tools or CRMs.
These holistic clinical tools free up time for doctors to focus on seeing their patients as regularly as necessary, keeping them in their pathway, getting results to them quickly and spotting potential problems early with collated records and data liquidity.
Crucially, doctors have a single location to consult, treat, prescribe and follow up with patients.
The use of features like AI-powered notes and structured consultation templates can capture conversations and any patient developments along the way to drive quality care.
Naturally, this enhances continuity of care too.
Automating everyday tasks like communication, reminders and admin means doctors can spend more time connecting with patients and not head down in paperwork.
A connected care system
Over the last 40 years, I’ve seen how digital tools have become essential to maintaining both efficiency and personal connection.
We’re now in an era where patients want to play an active part in their care and form a partnership with their GP; timely communication and easy access to their health information is a big part of that.
Sometimes technology can feel counterintuitive when it comes to providing truly personalised care.
For me, the most important part is that it allows me to do what I’ve always prided myself on: connect with patients, make eye contact, listen intently, and support them throughout their care journey.
As GPs, we’re a stable presence on what can be a rocky road back to good health. We are their advocates, so we need to keep human touch at the heart of every consultation.
Embracing technology that supports this human side of medicine means we can create a future where continuity of care is not just preserved, but strengthened, ensuring every patient receives safer, more personal, more connected healthcare.
