Are we careless about continuity of care?

At the Alma-Ata conference in 1978, multiple influential organisations gathered to define the core values of primary care.1 At this meeting, it was decided to adopt continuity of care as one of the core values. Continuity of care has several components: relational continuity, which stresses the personal patient–practitioner relationship over time; management continuity, which is about coordination of care across different healthcare professionals (HCPs); and informational continuity, which relates to appropriate transfer of patient data between different HCPs and between primary and secondary care.2