Every new shift, every new doctor, arrives carrying it. A fresh opinion. A new theory. A different plan. Nearly every single day. And with it, the unspoken assumption that this time, someone has finally understood. For patients and carers who live with long term illness or disability, hospital admissions are rarely a single event. They are episodes in a much longer story – one that stretches back years and forward indefinitely. Yet, hospitals often treat them as stand-alone p