Patient stories: Integrated learning for family physicians and primary health care teams

A family physician's open-ended commitment to the patient, not limited by the type of health problem or by a defined endpoint opens the door to the patients' world. Family physicians are uniquely privileged to provide all the key aspects of primary care-first contact care, comprehensive care, coordination and personalisation of care. The family physician as the trained primary care clinician is the interface between the illness experience of patients in primary care and the healthcare system in which patients undergo treatment. Based on our experience of working with communities, we submit that commitment to the person of the patient needs long-term relationship with communities. The breadth of knowledge and patient-doctor relationship in the compendium of a family physician skill set is a challenging and rewarding experience. This learned skill is attainable for all healthcare professionals.