Doctoring in Europe: The Perspectives of Primary Care Physicians: A Research Note

This paper explores the views of general practitioners (GPs) in Europe attending the World Family Council of Doctors conference in Dublin, Ireland (2024). Specifically, it engages a cross section of WONCA members by inquiring about their role as gatekeepers in health care, their current thinking about health care costs, their work experience and their stewardship in maintaining health care costs while simultaneously, working to improve the health of their patients. Data was collected from the relevant existing literature and a questionnaire distributed randomly to GPs attending the 2024 WONCA conference in Dublin, Ireland. The questionnaires were developed on the basis of a systematic review of the relevant literature on the changing status of GPs and was distributed to 50 GPs attendees with a return rate of 76%. This paper thus utilized a relatively small sample size focused exclusively on GPs. Based on the data collected, this paper contends that European GPs are generally satisfied with their work (92%) and they overwhelmingly see their role as “gatekeepers” in holding down health care costs, GPs were generally opposed to market reforms in health care. This study has wider implications for: (1) how GPs in Europe are meeting the challenges of their gatekeeping role in the face of financial constraints, and (2) how European GPs are working to reduce health inequalities.