The clinical encounter: the focal point of patient-centred care

Central to the UK Government's health‐care modernization agenda, is the notion of patient‐centred care. A plethora of initiatives have been spawned over the past few years with the objective of involving and empowering users of our health services in a more democratic, equitable and fair way. In parallel with this, the Government is introducing a raft of initiatives related to the need for accountability and for evidence‐based medicine (EBM).