Cancer survivors visit many different physicians and health care professionals. Contacts between cancer survivors and their primary care physicians or their occupational physicians are, however, not self-evident. Usually a patient goes to his or her primary care physician with complaints of first symptoms. Then, either a diagnosis is made in primary care or the patient is referred to a specialist in a hospital where the disease is diagnosed. From that time on, the focus of care is in the hospital with the surgeon, oncologist, and radiotherapist. Outpatient management of elements of this care have evolved as well over the years. Coordinating the care among these specialties is difficult enough, so one may wonder if there is still a role for the primary care physician.
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Notes
- 1.
In the Netherlands most patients that are on sick leave for some time are seen by occupational physicians to support their return to work. At the same time they provide 'sick notes' to legitimize absence from work for medical reasons. In the UK the primary care physician provides 'sick notes,' a policy currently very much under debate.
- 2.
In Finland, for example, the treating specialist in hospital prescribes the number of weeks a patient is allowed to stay off work on sick leave
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Verbeek, J., de Boer, A., Taskila, T. (2009). Primary and Occupational Health Care Providers. In: Work and Cancer Survivors. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-72041-8_9
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