Nearly 80% of private general practitioners now consider the general medicine offer in their area of practice to be insufficient, according to two studies by the Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics Department ( Drees) published Thursday, May 25 and that France Bleu was able to consult.
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According to this study, the drop in medical demography is strongly felt by private general practitioners. The study points out that at the beginning of 2022, 78% of them considered that there were not enough of them on their territory, whereas they were 67% in 2019. This evolution is mainly linked to the marked increase in the share of doctors judging the very insufficient supply, which rose from 22% in 2019 to 34% in 2022, specifies the DREES.
The thorny issue of new patients
Consequently, still according to this study, in 2022, two thirds (65%) of doctors declared that they had to refuse new patients as general practitioner, a figure again very sharply up compared to 2019, when they were 53% have to refuse new patients. The share of doctors who have to follow some of their patients less regularly has increased from 40% in 2019 to 44% in 2022, adds the DREES.
These figures are taken from two studies based on data from the latest wave of the survey by the Panel for the observation of practices and conditions of practice in general medicine, conducted by internet and by telephone between January 5 and April 22, 2022. Over 1,550 physicians were interviewed for this survey wave.