title: [Is there a role for general practitioners in future medicine?].
abstract: Changes in the type and frequency of diseases towards the end of the century will result in a larger number of elderly and chronically ill patients. At the same time, functional changes in the health services will lead to greater centralisation of complicated medical services. The general practitioner offers continuity, care and security in the patient's local environment. In the years to come the growing number of patients will put new pressures on the organisation of public health services. It is to be expected that general practitioners will have to take care of a larger number of more seriously ill patients than they do today. Therefore, general practitioners must examine the possibility of saying no to some of the many tasks they have accepted since the 1960s. Moreover, the hospitals must give priority to making their services more accessible and to improving the cooperation with the general practitioners so that the latter can use the specialists to a greater extent as advisers, and the hospitals as centers of expertise.
authors.affiliation: Hematologisk avdeling, Ullevål sykehus, Oslo.
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Sletnes
mesh_terms: D005194:Family Practice / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D009664:Norway; D010819:Physician's Role; D010821:Physicians, Family