General practitioners’ perspectives on relocating care: a Dutch interview study

Healthcare systems around the world are facing significant challenges because higher costs and an increase in demand for care has not been matched by a corresponding growth in the health workforce. Without reform, healthcare systems are unsustainable. Relocating care, such as from hospitals to general practices, is expected to make a key contribution to ensuring healthcare remains sustainable. Relocating care has a significant impact upon general practitioners (GPs). Therefore, we investigated which care, according to GPs, could be relocated and under which conditions. GPs were recruited through Nivel’s GPs network on eHealth and innovation, located in the Netherlands. One exploratory focus group and 12 in-depth interviews were conducted. Interview transcripts were analyzed using the qualitative research principles of thematic analysis. According to the participants, some diagnostic and follow-up care could be relocated from hospitals to GPs once certain prerequisites are fulfilled. An important condition of relocating care from the hospital to the GP is that GPs have sufficient time to take over these tasks. The types of care that can be relocated from the GP to other settings are those questions where the medical knowledge of the GP can offer nothing extra or where problems in navigating the health system cause patients to either turn to, or stay with, their GP. Care should first be relocated from the GP to other settings before attempting to organize the relocation of care from the hospital to the GP. When this, and other conditions are met, some diagnostic and follow-up care can be relocated from the hospital to the GP.