Family medicine
-
Over the last 10 years, care outside office hours by primary care physicians in The Netherlands has experienced a radical change. While Dutch general practitioners (GPs) formerly performed these services in small-call rotations, care is nowadays delivered by large-scale GP cooperatives. ⋯ Several aspects of out-of-hours care are discussed, such as telephone triage, self referrals, and future expectations, which should receive extra attention by researchers and health policy makers in the near future.