Outpatient care in 2040: What medical and healthcare professionals hope for

A key factor for the sustainable further development of primary care is the preferences of the health professionals involved. Their work should be made more attractive and tailored to their needs so that they are motivated and remain in their jobs for as long as possible. However, there is currently a lack of in-depth knowledge about the preferences of these professionals regarding the future of primary care. This policy brief addresses this issue. It summarises the results of a first-time survey on this topic among more than 4,000 physicians, pharmacists, medical practice assistants, nurses, and physiotherapists. The policy brief also formulates the following recommendations and offers suggestions for implementation:

• Empower non-physician health professionals to take responsibility for first contact.
• Assign responsibility for treatment plans to non-physician health professionals.
• Create more opportunities for interprofessional collaboration.
• Promote health networks and health centres as organisational forms of primary care.
• Make use of the willingness of health professionals to become more involved in health promotion and prevention.
• Make use of the markedly high level of innovativeness of health professionals.
• Make use of pharmacists' interest in playing a more active role in future primary care.

SLHS Lead: Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Lucerne

Author: Sophie Karoline Brandt 

Policy Brief (available in German): Download PDF

Key Messages: German, English, French, Italian