Competencies of General Practitioners – Family Doctors in Providing Comprehensive Oncological Medical Care to the Population at the Primary Level

The objective: to determine expertly the competencies that are necessary for family doctors to provide the comprehensive oncological medical care at the primary level. Materials and methods. The study is based on an expert assessment of the competencies, which are necessary for family doctors to provide comprehensive oncological medical care to the population at the primary level. The independent experts included 17 health care organizers, 7 oncologists and 12 family doctors. Confidentiality of information about the experts was maintained. The study was carried out using the following methods: bibliosemantic, expert assessments, medical-statistical (calculation of relative indicators based on the results of the examination) and structural-logical analysis. Results. According to the results of the expert assessment, the competencies, which are necessary for family doctors to provide oncology services to the population at the primary level were determined. By functional purpose, the competencies of family doctors are divided into the following groups: – which are necessary for performing organizational functions; – which are related to ensuring effective communication with target groups of the population; – which are necessary for preventive activity; – which are necessary for organizing medical care for patients with malignant neoplasms at the level of primary health care. The experts identified the optimal ways to form the necessary competencies in family doctors to provide oncology medical services. They include: short-term training, thematic improvement courses and telecommunications with consulting doctors, master classes, internships at the workplace in a supracluster specialized healthcare institution. Conclusions. The implementation of the competencies of family physicians, which were determined by the experts, in health­care practice will provide the population with accessible and effective oncological medical care at the primary level.