General practice

General practitioners care for people of all ages in their practice for acute and chronic health problems and in prevention. They are the first point of contact, assess the urgency of complaints and decide on referrals to specialists or hospitals. They follow chronically ill patients over time with follow-up and laboratory checks. Diagnostics in the practice include ECG, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, lung function testing, pulse oximetry, abdominal ultrasound and point-of-care laboratory testing. Outside the practice they make home visits and care for seriously ill patients at home or in nursing homes, and they also lead the practice team and document treatment.