TY - JOUR T1 - January Focus JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 2 LP - 2 VL - 56 IS - 522 AU - David Jewell Y1 - 2006/01/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/56/522/2.abstract N2 - To start off the new year, we have a remarkable small cluster of papers dealing with palliative care. The history of research in this area has been marked by disappointment, with a number of studies running into problems of recruitment. Here there are three shedding some much needed light into that corner of primary care whose importance is emphasised by the editorial on page 3. If the existence of these papers is something of a surprise, the content will tend to confirm the gut feelings of many clinicians. On page 20, the study from the Netherlands identified four elements of good palliative care: availability; competence; continuity; and teamwork. As one of the participating doctors said: ‘For me, good terminal care is … good clinical care.’ The study on page 6 looks specifically … ER -