The family doctor's work environment--time for a change

There is a large gap between how physicians perceive their job as family doctors on the one hand, as expressed in their education and training as medical students and family medicine residents, and its perception vis-à-vis their employers. The organizations that employ doctors and pay their wages and to whom they are committed, dictate work conditions that don't enable doctors to bring to fruition their skills, reliability, and commitment to their job in their daily clinic work routine. This gap has increased over the years. Doctors studied in medical schools and strive to succeed where others may have failed. The author believes that the Administrative Committee of the Association of Family Physicians in Israel should take upon itself responsibility for this matter. The committee should plan and conduct a comprehensive assessment of the current work environment of family doctors and the conditions under which doctors should seek to work. The assessment of needs and the creation of an appropriate work environment can be achieved by hiring the services of suitable external bodies or any other source to provide an objective evaluation. The time has come to formulate recommendations and to act clearly and uncompromisingly to implement them, with the cooperation of doctors' committees and the entire body of family physicians in Israel.