Why such a symposium?
In the winter of 2021, when the beginnings of a possible way out of the Covid-19 crisis were appearing, many of us made the same observation: primary care medicine, that is medicine that goes from individual or group medical practices to large urban policlinics and nursing homes, has certainly played an important role in the management of the pandemic, but its potential has been insufficiently exploited, particularly by the authorities in charge of public decisions. This observation has been confirmed by international bodies such as the WHO and the OECD. We therefore felt that it would be interesting to take our heads off the wheel, to distance ourselves from all of our activities deployed during the pandemic (care, screening, vaccination, etc.) and to organize an exchange of experiences in order to build a body of knowledge and propose recommendations in four countries: Belgium, Canada, France and Switzerland. The commonalities shared by these four countries, whether at the historical (thank you Napoleon!), linguistic, cultural, societal, academic and of course health system levels (universal coverage, private and/or public insurers, among others), facilitate such an exchange dynamic.