Family Medicine

Description of Family Physician

They are physicians specialized at family medicine or a branch with the training as suggested by the Ministry of Health of Republic of Turkey, or specialized physicians who are working in places where the individuals and residents live or in the locations where the residents may easily arrive, who will be the first address in case of any medical conditions, who can deliver preventive health care as well as the primary diagnosis regardless of age, sex, and disease, who shall be held responsible for providing relevant treatment procedures, and who work at full-day basis.

Duties of Family Physicians:

1- To deliver preventive health care as well as primary diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and consultancy services;

2- To evaluate all individuals under his/her service as a whole and to deliver the individualized preventive health care as well as treatment and rehabilitating treatment services;

3- To provide guidance related to health care matters and to deliver services such as health improvement, preventive and maternal and child care, as well as family planning services;

4- To visit individuals under his/her service at their homes within the first six months or to contact them in order to perform the first assessments;

5- To carry out the follow-up and screenings of those residents under his / her service by differentiating them according to age, sex, and disease groups (CA, chronic diseases, pregnant, puerperal period, neonatal, baby, child health, adolescent, adult, elder health, etc.), and

6- To carry out periodical health treatments;

7- To enable the delivery of testing services or to deliver such services directly;

8- To assess those individuals under his/her own services at least once a year and to update their health records;

9- To provide primary diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and consultancy services to those who are disabled, elderly, bedridden and other similar patients who essentially need home care during the delivery of mobile and on-site health services;

10- To transfer the patients who are not treated and diagnosed in the family medicine centers to the other centers, to evaluate the feedback of these transferred patients including their examination, diagnosis, tests and hospitalization information and to coordinate secondary and tertiary treatment and rehabilitation services as well as home care;

11- If necessary, to observe the patient and to perform tests and treatment procedures;

12- In the integrated health care centers, if necessary, to hospitalize the patient for observation and to carry out tests and treatment procedures;

13- To manage the family health center, to supervise the cooperative team and to provide in-service trainings; and

14- To arrange all kinds of individual health reports, transfer documents, prescription and similar documents stipulated to be prepared by primary health care centers and official physicians in the relevant Legislation.