The General Practitioner (GP) is a specialist doctor who works at the forefront of the healthcare system, a generalist who accepts all people who seek their services regardless of age, gender or illness, focusing on the human being as a whole, covering all aspects of general medicine, prioritising the person as a unique being, different from all others. They focus on providing primary care.
They focus on providing comprehensive, integrated and continuous primary, preventive and curative care to individuals, families and their communities. They are the first element in a process of continuous health care.
The Family and Community Doctor must have a strong bond with their patients even before they fall ill, preventing disease, and must be the first doctor to be consulted. They treat people of all ages, continuously and comprehensively, and work in an interdisciplinary team with other specialists whose support is necessary.
In FPC, there is no dichotomy between prevention and cure, and all diseases can be addressed. According to the world literature, it resolves 80 to 90% of health problems.