Yes | Patients want it | Patients will continue to want and fight for a personal physician in the future |
Personal relationships | The personal, trusting relationship between patient and doctor will remain vital to providing good patient care |
Coordinators of care | Personal physicians are necessary because they help patients manage, coordinate, and navigate their care in a complex health care system |
Care over the life course | Personal physicians treat patients over the life span, which is necessary for good patient care |
Maybe | System pressures | Decreased resources and increased constraints of the health care system might affect the future of personal physicians |
Loss of philosophy | Not all family medicine practitioners still identify with the patient-centred, humanistic view of the field |
Evolution of medicine | The field of medicine has changed throughout history and will continue to change |
No | Replacement of the personal physician | Family health teams have already begun to replace the personal physician in Canada |
Putting the system before the person | The health care system will threaten the future of the personal physician |