Two-thirds of GPs refuse new patients

2023-05-26 09:06:46

The Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (DREES) publishes a study on the perception of general practitioners on the offer of general medicine in their territory and on the evolution of practices and conditions of exercise. Faced with the decline in medical demography, more and more of them are refusing new patients as attending physicians, seeing certain patients regularly followed less often and cutting back on training time.

Cette étude s’appuie sur les données issues de la dernière vague d’enquête du quatrième Panel d’observation des pratiques et des conditions d’exercice en médecine générale, menée par internet et par téléphone entre le 5 janvier et le 22 avril 2022. Plus de 1 550 médecins ont été interrogés pour cette sixième vague d’enquête.

Nearly 80% of private general practitioners now consider the supply of general medicine in their area of practice to be insufficient.

The decline in medical demography is strongly felt by private general practitioners. At the beginning of 2022, 78% of them consider that there are not enough of them on their territory, whereas they were 67% in 2019. This evolution is mainly linked to the marked increase in the proportion of doctors judging the very insufficient supply: it went from 22% in 2019 to 34% in 2022. The perception of doctors vis-à-vis the local supply is consistent with the objective situation described by the indicator of “localized potential accessibility” (APL) to general practitioners. Half of the doctors practicing in the areas where the APL is the weakest find the supply of care very insufficient, compared to 20% of the doctors practicing in the most endowed territories.

In 2022, 65% of doctors say they have to refuse new patients as general practitioner; they were 53% in 2019

To adapt to the tension between supply and demand for care, general practitioners are adapting their practices. Among the various practices adopted, there is one that is progressing strongly between 2019 and 2022: the refusal to take on new patients as attending physicians. While they were 53% to do so in 2019, they are now 65% in 2022 (graph).

The percentage of doctors required to follow up some of their patients less regularly has increased from 40% in 2019 to 44% in 2022. It is more doctors under 50, those with a volume of activity high, who practice in a group or even those who have to face the greatest difficulties of medical demography who adapt their practices more.

• Two-thirds of GPs say they are led to refuse new patients as attending physician, Bérengère Davin-Casalena, Dimitri Scronias, Lisa Fressard, Pierre Verger et al. Studies and Results, n°1267, May 25, 2023, in pdf.

• On a related subject, the DREES also publishes: General practitioners: at the start of 2022, one in five participates in a CPTS and one in twenty employs a medical assistant, Maxime Bergeat, Noémie Vergier (DREES), Pierre Verger et al. Studies and Results, n°1268, May 25, 2023, in pdf.