Primary Care Physician Day in Russia Date in the current year: October 17, 2024

A primary care physician, a general practitioner or a family doctor (the choice of the term varies depending on the country) is the first medical practitioner contacted by a person with health concerns. Primary care physicians are trained to treat a range of acute and chronic illnesses; in addition to treatment, they are typically responsible for providing preventive care and health education to their patients.

In Russia and some other former Soviet republics, a national network of primary care physicians is part of the universal health care system. Primary care physicians are assigned to people depending on their registration address. Each primary care physician working at an outpatient clinic is assigned a range of addresses and works only with patients who are recorded as living at these addresses.

A typical work day of a primary care physician in Russia is divided into two parts: they see patients at the outpatient clinic in the morning and visit patients at their homes in the afternoon, or vice versa. In addition to seeing patients, the duties of a primary care physician include preventive medical examinations, health education, and vaccination.

Of course, primary care physicians and nurses also have to fill out documentation, both paper and electronic, which takes quite a lot of their time. This documentation includes sick leave certificates, vaccination certificates, patients’ records, various reports, and more.

To become a primary care physician in Russia, one needs to graduate from a medical university with a degree in General Medicine and then complete a two-year residency or a one-year internship in Internal Medicine. However, a good primary care physician never stops studying and stays up to date with new diagnostic and treatment methods, latest pharmaceutical developments, etc.

A good primary care physician should have basic knowledge in various medical specialties in order to be able to correctly diagnose his or her patients or at least refer them to the right specialist, saving them the need to undergo unnecessary examinations and tests. In addition, primary care physicians need to be able to make quick and right decisions because the amount of time allotted to a patient’s visit isn’t particularly long.

Primary care physicians are the first and most important link in primary health care. They deserve their reputation as the busiest medical doctors because they see dozens of patients every day and deal with a variety of health complaints, from the common cold to flare-ups of chronic conditions.

There is no official professional holiday for primary care physicians in Russia yet, but they celebrate an unofficial Primary Care Physician Day in October 17. On this day, primary care physicians are congratulated by their families and friends, co-workers, and, of course, grateful patients.