Barriers for general practitioners in post-stroke follow-up within a fragmented healthcare system in Sweden – a focus group study

The interviews were transcribed and analysed using qualitative content analysis.</p> <p>There were two themes: “Multifaceted mission in an insufficiently organized healthcare system” and “The complexity of adherence”. There were six categories that encompassed shortcomings in the areas of: sufficient time for the patients, the overarching structure of the healthcare system, the internal structure of follow-ups, medical adherence, the responsibility for renewals of medication and tools for adherence.</p> <p>The perspectives of GPs revealed structural problems at different levels in the health care system as well as difficulties in handling medication adherence indicating a need for improvement.

GPs touched on solutions including increasing the number of GPs, education and improved referrals from hospital to primary care.</p> <p></p><p>GPs find post-stroke follow-up difficult because of heavy workload</p><p>The healthcare system does not facilitate standardised follow-up of patients</p><p>Medication adherence remains challenging due to unclear responsibility for the medication list and lack of tools to improve adherence</p><p></p> <p>GPs find post-stroke follow-up difficult because of heavy workload</p> <p>The healthcare system does not facilitate standardised follow-up of patients</p> <p>Medication adherence remains challenging due to unclear responsibility for the medication list and lack of tools to improve adherence</p>