ABSTRACT
No one in primary care works in isolation. Communication is a foundation stone on which the clinician-patient relationship is based in primary care, and it is at the heart of the modernising NHS.
Good communication requires engagement, promotion, time and as much listening as speaking. Done well, it positively transforms both the clinician’s and the patient’s experience. Communication seems like an easy thing to do, yet it often heads any list of frustrations and complaints. So, with many millions of pounds being invested in the NHS information technology (IT) infrastructure, and accompanying service improvement, is a new communications paradigm emerging? What are the implications for those of us who work with patients? Will we need a new set of communications skills?
