Whether in terms of the quality of care, consultation time or access to information, the French are extremely satisfied with their doctor.
This should give pleasure to a profession which often complains of no longer being respected. The vast majority of French people have a very favorable opinion of their doctors, according to a news study of the DREES (Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics).
88% of satisfied patients
More than eight out of ten patients say they are satisfied with the quality of care offered by French general practitioners (88%). The same is true for the level of information given by their general practitioner on their state of health (87%) and for the time they give them when they go to see him (84%).
The point that annoys ultimately relates more to accessibility to care: 29% of French people think that close to home, there are not enough general practitioners. 47% of French people share this idea about medical specialists. More precisely, according to them, it is first of all ophthalmologists (for a quarter of French people) and then general practitioners (for 18%) whose installation close to home should be favored as a priority. Among the 20% of French people who say they lack general practitioners and specialists, four out of ten want the installation of general practitioners as a priority, and the figures prove them right.
98% of the population access a general practitioner in less than 10 minutes
While the number of municipalities where at least one general practitioner is installed increased from 8,843 in 1981 to 9,595 in 2016, nearly 5.7 million people resided in 2016 in a municipality that was under-dense in general practitioners.
To be precise, 9,142 municipalities are in a situation of under-density. Most of the time, these are rural municipalities on the outskirts of the major poles or municipalities outside the influence of the poles. However, urban areas are also affected: a quarter of the population living in a commune with a low density of general practitioners live in an urban center, including nearly 18% in the urban unit of Paris.
On the other hand, the average time of access to a general practitioner remains more than satisfactory in France. In 2016, 98% of the population accessed a general practitioner in less than 10 minutes. Less than 0.1% of the population, or around 52,000 people, has to travel 20 minutes or more by car to see a general practitioner.
.
