Shortages in general practitioners' offices are worsening – but they could be avoided.
22.07.2025 17:07
Many general practitioners in Germany are planning to significantly reduce their weekly working hours. At the same time, one in four intends to end their practice within the next five years. This threatens cuts in medical care. This is particularly problematic because, according to the federal government's plans, general practices are to take on additional tasks in the future. However, there are solutions to largely compensate for these bottlenecks.
A quarter of general practitioners in Germany plan to retire within the next five years. Those who wish to continue practicing intend to reduce their weekly working hours by an average of two and a half hours by 2030. This is according to a new survey conducted by us and the Institute for Health Services Research and Clinical Epidemiology at Philipps University of Marburg, which surveyed nearly 3,700 general practitioners in Germany in a representative sample. Since the next generation of doctors can only partially compensate for these developments, the number of missing general practitioners is likely to double in the next five years. Currently, over 5,000 general practitioner positions are vacant.
According to our experts, this development does not necessarily have to lead to a decline in primary care: "What will be crucial is how much time general practitioners actually have available for working with patients. Here, it is important to tap into previously untapped potential," says our Director of Health, Uwe Schwenk. According to survey data, general practitioners spend around 80 percent of their working time on consultations and home visits. They spend the remainder on administrative tasks, continuing education, or other activities.
The primary care system needs better digitalization and more task delegation.
The primary care system planned in the coalition agreement would create additional challenges. According to the agreement, general practitioners are to act more as a central point of contact and coordinate access to specialist practices in a binding manner. "It is fundamentally necessary and sensible to better manage patient flow. However, if general practitioners take on this task, it will cost them time. Therefore, it will be important to relieve them of as much work as possible in other areas," says Schwenk.
One way to relieve the burden on general practitioners' offices is to further digitize tasks such as appointment management, data exchange, diagnostics, and treatment processes. However, this requires that the digital solutions function reliably in daily practice. Twenty-five percent of those surveyed reported that software problems disrupt practice and treatment workflows one or more times a day. Furthermore, certain tasks could also be delegated to other, non-medical healthcare professionals—for example, specially trained medical assistants or nurses. Seven out of ten general practitioners surveyed consider the associated potential for reducing workload to be significant.
Modernize structures, instead of just putting more money into the system.
In our view, the structures and processes within the healthcare system should be modernized, rather than trying to plug supply gaps with even more tax subsidies or higher health insurance contributions – especially given the very strained financial situation of public budgets and the already very high non-wage labor costs. "To secure primary care, the necessary digitalization measures must succeed, unnecessary doctor visits must be reduced, and new forms of interdisciplinary collaboration must be established," emphasizes Schwenk.
Changes in procedures that lead to fewer administrative tasks and shorter working hours can significantly contribute to retaining general practitioners in the system: The majority of respondents who want to leave general practice can imagine staying in the profession longer than planned under certain conditions. They most frequently cite less bureaucracy as a prerequisite; many also desire shorter and more flexible working hours. On average, the surveyed general practitioners currently work 44 hours per week. This weekly working time is thus ten hours above the average working time of all employees in Germany, but has decreased significantly in the past decade: According to the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians' (KBV) physician monitor, general practitioners still worked 57.6 hours per week in 2012.