A lack of time for general practitioners leads to more doctor visits

Munich - Patients with mental or psychosomatic illnesses visit their family doctor particularly often. That reports that.

According to study by the Barmer GEK, every German went to doctor almost 18 times in 2008. The working group of Antonius Schneider, the director of the institute for general medicine, looked for an explanation for this high number. For this purpose, the scientists evaluated the numbers of 1,000 patients in 13 general practitioners' practices in Upper Bavaria from 2010. They recorded the number of general practitioner contacts, certificates of incapacity for work and referrals. During their examination, they had 15.3 visits to the doctor and 3.8 referrals per patient per year. According to the scientists, patients with mental or psychosomatic illnesses in particular often go to the doctor. “In German general practices, doctors only have an average of six to ten minutes per patient. So it's no wonder that these patients keep coming back until the causes of their complex health disorders have been adequately identified and treated, ”said Schneider.