Danish general practitioners only play a minor role in the coordination of cancer treatment

INTRODUCTION: Despite initiatives to integrate treatment
and care across organisations, patient trajectories in Danish
health-care are not well coordinated. Coordination among
many health-care professionals is essential, and it is frequently
suggested that a single person should perform the
task of coordination. The aim of the article is to discuss
whether general practitioners (GPs) may play a coordinating
role for individual patients in Danish cancer treatment?
MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study is based on individual
interviews and focus groups analyzed by meaning condensation.
RESULTS: The GP’s potential to coordinate patient trajectories
was limited by lack of involvement of the GPs by other
health-care professionals and lack of needed information.
Furthermore, many patients do not regard their GP as
a coordinator. Patients who contacted their GP during
treatment typically had a close relationship with their GP
prior to their cancer diagnosis. In cases with a more distant
relationship, patients did not see a need for the GP’s involvement.
The majority of patients’ trajectories were decided
within hospitals. The level of information provided to
GPs varied much between hospitals and wards. In the majority
of cases, GPs had no access to information or were
not informed about hospital decisions affecting the patients’
trajectories, and they were therefore unable to perform
a coordinating role.
CONCLUSION: GPs only played a minor or no role at all as
coordinators of individual cancer patient trajectories. The
findings of the present study question the idea that coordination
throughout the entire health-care system may be
assigned to a single individual as the involved parties belong
to different organizations with different goals, managements
and economic resources.