With 4.6 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, Switzerland has one of the world’s highest rates of doctors per capita. At the same time it has a shortage of family doctors, reports SRF.
World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines recommend a rate of 1 family doctor for every 1,000 people. Switzerland has around 8,500, which comes to 0.97 per 1,000 residents. However, family doctors are working less and many work part time. In 2005, an average working week was 50 hours. Now it’s 43 hours. 63% of family doctors now work 4 days a week or less. When the per capita rate is adjusted to full time equivalents there are only 0.8 general practitioners per 1,000.
In addition, the rate of family doctors to people continues to trend downwards. Why?
Fewer and fewer medical students are choosing to train as general practitioners. Currently only 20% choose this specialisation. In order to have a sufficient number 40% would need to choose it, according to some experts. Why fewer medical students are choosing to become family doctors is less clear. For some, the process of running a business is off putting. Tilman Slembeck, a health economist at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), thinks the problem is a shortage of training places. Slembeck thinks the cantons should do more to offer more training places. He also thinks fewer family doctors could drive the cost of medical care higher. Family doctors are the gatekeepers that make decisions of which specialists patients need to see. This helps to drive cost efficiency.
More on this:
SRF article (in German)
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