Always there to care: always there, close to you, patient, and where needed, ready to treat and take care of. They are family doctors, celebrated today, May 19, with a Day dedicated to them. Since 2010, it has been called by Wonca, the organization that, on a global level, brings together general practitioners. “Always there to care” is this year's theme, to underline the continuity, availability and importance of primary care and general practitioners.
"The continuity of care offered by family doctors is essential for the effectiveness of the treatment itself - explains the President of the National Federation of Medical Associations, Philip Rings – and it is an added value that gives the patient years of life in good health. Proximity, closeness, being there where it is needed is another pillar of the assistance provided by general practitioners. 
Always on the front line, in wars, in health emergencies, in times of peace. Ready to carry out their mission even at the risk of their own lives: of the 374 doctors who died from Covid, almost two-thirds were general practitioners.
Care, understood as therapy but above all as taking charge of the patient in the round, is the raison d'être of family doctors, who, Wonca recalls, provide high-quality care in an equal manner. In Italy, the family doctor is the figure through which the National Health Service realizes the values of proximity and equality in access to treatment for all citizens”.
“In these two years of pandemic – he adds – to the 20 million Italians suffering from chronic diseases already treated by family doctors the 17 million citizens positive for Covid have been added, doubling workloads. Italian general practitioners should be thanked for their work and supported for ensuring assistance in the most difficult period in the history of our NHS".
“Today is the time that the specific diploma in general medicine is considered to all intents and purposes a specialization, as required by EU regulations – concludes Anelli -. It is also time to enhance the role of this pillar of the National Health Service: a professional at the service of citizens. A professional who is linked to his patients by a relationship that doesn't end with the visit to the studio, but that continues with a phone call, a message even on Sundays or late in the evening, to get advice, dispel a doubt, receive reassurance. A relationship that generates trust, the most precious coin: the 81% of the Italians has faith in his family doctor. And trust is the basis of the treatment relationship and a prerequisite for the success of any therapeutic or prevention strategy".
Source: FNOMCeO Press and Information Office – 19/05/2022
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