Patient orientation is the main focus of the general practitioner’s work

Abstract

Taking into account the uneven settlement of the population of the Russian Federation, as well as with the aim of adapting the medical sphere to modern economic conditions in the context of the new economic mechanism, the reform of the health care system was started in the late 1990s. As a result of the reorganization of the primary care, a new specialty appeared, i.e. general practitioners, who replaced therapists and pediatricians. For many years, the principle of treatment of the disease was dominant in the Russian health care, without taking into account the individual characteristics of a patient; the introduced reform was aimed at ensuring that the doctor would advise a particular patient for all his/her life, know the characteristics of the organism, and understand the etiopathogenesis of the development of a particular disease. In February 2006, at the second World Patient Congress held in Spain by the International Alliance of Patient Organizations (IAPO), the Declaration on Patient-Centred Healthcare was adopted. It is an alternative program, aimed primarily not at treatment, but at the prevention of diseases, health promotion and the formation of general well-being, based on modern technologies and an individual approach to each patient.