TY - JOUR T1 - Rethinking generalist health care: opportunities from challenges JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 338 LP - 339 DO - 10.3399/bjgp22X719993 VL - 72 IS - 720 AU - Joanne Reeve Y1 - 2022/07/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/72/720/338.abstract N2 - Health Education England describes a vision of future health care built on whole-person, generalist care.1 But, if this is to succeed, we must first address some misconceptions about medical generalism. My team have been working on three.Ask someone, ‘What is person-centred care?’ and they commonly describe the importance of the so-called ‘soft skills’ — communication, empathy, relationship-based care. These certainly matter — research and clinical experience confirm the therapeutic value of relationships. But it was a patient who made me think again. Let’s call her Helen.2 Helen was dying from breast cancer. She was a busy wife, mother, employee. Terminal cancer had turned her daily life upside down. Helen spoke movingly about how much she valued her relationships with her clinical team. Their empathy, care, and understanding of her illness as being ‘more than about cancer’ created invaluable personal care. But she criticised the same professionals for their failure to translate personal … ER -