General practitioner
A family doctor is a established ( freelance ) or an employee in a medical care center physician who is usually the first point of contact with medical problems for the patient or in the context of the GP model even has to be.
He is usually with the pharmacist first medical " focal point" for the one seeks in health problems or issues. As any resident doctor, so the doctor is professional legal obligation, if necessary, for example, in more severe diseases, perform necessary home visits. To ensure the medical care outside of office hours, organize resident doctors usually a medical emergency.
Important for doctor and patient is a relationship of trust, which is why it is also called the family doctor. Ideally, the doctor knows of previous occasions essentially the food or medical history, while he must rise in new patients only in an extensive discussion (anamnesis). With some knowledge of the personal situation and the confidence of the patient's primary care doctors may sometimes even with mental health problems or conflicts, a better access to the patient than many specialist.
If necessary, the doctor also writes the referral to a physician to a particular therapy or hospital.
Germany
In Germany working as GPs:
- Specialists in General Medicine
- House Medically established Specialists in internal medicine
- So-called general practitioners, so doctors without specialist recognition. For insurance approved today requires a certification examination, re-registration of a medical practitioner as a contract physician is no longer possible today.
- Specialist in Child and Adolescent Medicine (formerly pediatrician ).
The account of his achievements takes place at the statutory health insurance with the insurance on the physicians' association, in private patients with these directly. In 2004, a family practice in Germany by an average of 176,100 euros. The cost share was 52.8 percent of sales. The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians was 2010 that the GPs have received seven per cent more than in the previous year in 2009. With a gross average of more than 206,000 euros ( gross of fees ) they get now more fees than others, specialized doctors.
Since the late 1990s, many health officials are trying to strengthen the role of the family physician in the health care system.
In Germany there are about 60,000 primary care physicians. 18.5 percent of physicians in Germany are cash medically active practitioners. The median income for a family doctor is according to statistics from the OECD in Germany with 80 730 Euro, in Switzerland at 87,000 euros and 94,300 euros in the Netherlands. Private income is not taken into account. By 2020, about half of family doctors in Germany will go into retirement. How is the number of primary care physicians, but also depends on how many of the nearly 10,000 annual graduates of medicine specializing as a specialist in general medicine and settle down as a family doctor.
The German Society of General Practice and Family Medicine ( DEGAM ) represents the scientific and professional interests of family doctors in Germany in particular through the development of guidelines, statements to the public health institutions and research and youth initiatives.
Related Topics
- Personal physicians are primary care physicians in the exclusive service of a single person or family.
- The family doctors includes the primary care treatment of insured patients who are enrolled in this treaty. The billing is handled by a contractor, usually an association, and not through the physicians' association.
- Country doctors are general practitioners in rural areas.