TY - JOUR T1 - The future shape of primary care JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 63 LP - 64 DO - 10.3399/bjgp14X676960 VL - 64 IS - 619 AU - Martin Roland AU - Ellen Nolte Y1 - 2014/02/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/64/619/63.abstract N2 - There is no shortage of international policy documents outlining the importance of primary care. But does the reality match up to the rhetoric? This is answered in part in a study by Kringos et al.1 They describe primary care in 31 European countries in terms of investment in primary care, governance, workforce development, access, services delivered, continuity, coordination, comprehensiveness, and GPs’ income.One fundamental, if not surprising observation is that primary care is highly variable. This starts from defining who provides primary care, to whether ‘GP’ means the same thing in different countries, whether GPs work single-handedly or collaborate with others in multidisciplinary teams, whether they have a gatekeeping role, whether they have a registered list and the range of services that are provided, to working conditions and income. Using a wide range of indicators on the different dimensions, Kringos and colleagues developed a measure of ‘strength of primary care’, according to which countries such as the UK, Denmark, and Netherlands rank top, while others such as Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, and Ireland score poorly on care structures considered key for strong primary care. The study provides a great deal of detail to add to previous surveys documenting wide variation between primary care in different countries.2In a separate article, the same authors looked … ER -