What do general practitioners and their patients want from general practice and are they receiving it? A framework.

This article outlines a framework for answering four questions of national concern in Australia: what do patients want from general practice? What do GPs want from general practice? What do patients get from general practice? What do GPs get from general practice? These questions are posed with respect to four unique attributes of general practice care: first contact care, longitudinality, coordination and comprehensiveness. The nature of the doctor-patient relationship is also examined because, like the other attributes, it has been reported in the literature to be important to patients and GPs. The framework provides a basis for the empirical study of GP and patient perceptions of general practice care.