This chapter explores primary care and general practice. It outlines primary care (general practice in the UK and worldwide, primary care, intermediate care and self-care, primary health care teams, and pressures of primary care), consulting and certifying (the consultation and patient centred care, consultation models, complex decision making, managing uncertainty, what to do for the best, continuity of care, home visits, telephone consulting, chronic disease, approaching minor illness, medically unexplained symptoms, time off work and fit notes, fitness to drive, fitness to fly, UK benefits, certification of death) health and healthy living (health and social class, social class and health inequalities, prevention, screening, health education, smoking cessation, managing alcohol and drug misuse, managing obesity, managing sleep problems, exercise, healthy eating and alternative medicine, domestic violence), and practice management and performance (GPs as business managers and commissioners, independent practice vs commercial companies, clinical governance, significant events, audit and complaints, appraisal, revalidation and performance, prescribing and referring, patient groups).
National quality and performance system for Divisions of General Practice: early reflections on a system under development
