[How to ensure the accessibility of primary care]

The accessibility of primary care is under pressure, because more and more responsibilities and tasks are being shifted to general practitioners. Changes will have to take place to safeguard the core values of primary care: person-oriented, medical-generalistic and continuous. The increase in chronic diseases and multimorbidity forces general practitioners to delve deeper into complex care and maintain their management role in healthcare. Because of their guiding function, general practitioners must orientate themselves on problem areas that were previously discussed less prominently, such as questions related to gender identity and diversity. The time required for this may become available through the disposal and delegation of tasks and through further digitization. Digital interdisciplinary consultation in particular may improve the efficiency and quality of care. Finally, patients must be better informed about the nature of their complaints and the indications for an assessment by the GP.