Today, May 19th, is World Family Doctor Day. This is the day when we general practitioners / family physicians / primary care doctors get to sit back, crack out the party poppers and pat ourselves on the back for the good work we do for our patients and communities.

Here in Australia, we instinctively know how important we are in the health system. We know that we do the vast majority of the medical care in this country, with only a small proportion of our patients ever stepping foot in our secondary and tertiary hospitals. We also know that without strong primary care, the overall health system would crumble. In our low tech setting we use our clinical judgement to absorb a lot of the risk of uncertainty, keeping acutely unwell patients out of emergency departments. Our focus on preventive health care keeps the population healthier for longer, reducing…