Rethinking general practice for the 21st century. The patient counts!

BACKGROUND

Increasingly, reforms to health care systems appear to interfere with the traditional (healer) role of the general practitioner, and are perceived to disrupt patient care and the therapeutic relationship.

OBJECTIVE

To outline measures for the survival and future development of the discipline of general practice in Australia.

DISCUSSION

In order to preserve longitudinal relationship centred care and high level primary care clinical expertise, health bureaucracies and general practice itself, must re-focus care on the individual and community, integrating new developments rather than allowing 'new ideas and system pressures' to continually distort functional general practice.