The role of the family physician in providing psychiatric care in the general hospital.

The College of Family Physicians of Canada defines a family physician as one who is trained to provide primary, continuing comprehensive medical care to any or all members of the family, using the available ancillary and consulting services to ensure exemplary medical care. Implicit in this statement is access to hospital beds to allow the continuing care process to extend throughout a hospital stay. Unfortunately, not all family physicians have ready access to psychiatric beds, nor are they adequately remunerated for their work in hospitals.This study compares attitudes of Saskatoon family physicians in 1979 to the provision of inpatient psychiatric care by the family physician, to the same study performed in 1962. More family physicians in 1979 showed interest in treating their own patients for any mental illness.