ABSTRACT
General Practitioners (GPs) will have to decide how to achieve clinical and ethical continuity in the face of the fear of increasing litigation. The GP has considered the individual patient s needs as paramount. This consideration is enshrined in the phrase personal medical service as applied to general practice. It is foreseeable that a fragmentation of responsibility in primary care will dilute the sense of continuing personal care provided by the GP. There are considerable tensions between public expectations of a national health service and government provision of resources for such a service; these are likely to continue as long as the NHS remains politically controlled. Where evidence-based medicine scores highly is in enhancing the GPs ability to explain the clear validated evidence base for the success or otherwise of a particular treatment and to present to the patient the known risks and benefits.
