title: Rethinking general practice for the 21st century. The patient counts!
abstract: 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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Practice, Monash University, Victoria. achim.sturmberg@iname.com
authors.forename: Joachim P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Sturmberg
authors.forename: Carmel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Leon
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Piterman
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001315:Australia; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005194:Family Practice / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends*; D005544:Forecasting; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D017146:Models, Organizational; D015279:Organizational Culture; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends*