Conflicts between personal and public health care: can one GP serve two masters?

摘要

General practice has always been placed between personal care and public health duty. But the latter has not been an integral part of general practice for very long and is still poorly integrated in countries like Germany, Austria, and France. But even in those countries, working as a GP often includes a public health approach, and GPs' role — in the language of social science — is defined by public health, as well as by the requirements of personal care.1,2