[Role, mission, and expectations of general physicians]

Considering the importance of the general medicine in the French public health sector, National Academy of Medicine has created a workgroup specifically devoted to this problem (the role, the missions and the expectations of the general practitioners (GP). Several hearings of GP and of members of patients associations were organized and all the medical unions were also asked by letter. The conclusions of the workgroup mainly concern: 1) the need of better GP-patients relationships 2) the need of a more appropriate professional education 3) better Hospital-GP or health insurance-GP relationships 4) improvement of the GP "status" with the possibility of a better participation to national health campaigns. Among several proposals, the members of the workgroup suggest the organisation of a national meeting devoted to the place and attempts of GP in the French public health. They consider their report as a preliminary one and they have announced that they will continue trying to make more specific suggestions.