Europe is short of General Practitioners
The European population is expanding and getting older, while there are constantly less General Practitioners (GPs) that can satisfy their needs and take good care of them. Indeed, GPs play a crucial role in intermediating between patients who are unwell and specialists, but there are not enough of them. While there are very few new doctors who decide to specialize in this field, the ones who are already active are aging together with the population, and are getting closer to retirement age.
Among the various underlying causes to this situation there are working conditions, wages, the difficulties of the job, long travel time, and the fact that shortages often take place in areas that are already poorer and less desirable. An EDJNet investigation coordinated by Voxeurop, dug deeper into the reasons behind this European-wide shortage of GPs. The investigation analyzed the situation in 11 European countries, also highlighting the challenges of working with fragmentary and hard-to-compare data.
Main findings:
- The proportion of citizens aged 65 and over in the EU has increased from 16% in 2000 to 21% in 2023, and is likely to reach around 30% by 2050. This is a result of longer life expectancy and lower fertility rates, which are causing a major shift in the demographic composition of countries.
- Doctors across all specializations are ageing as well, and they are getting closer and closer to retirement. However, the influx of young doctors into healthcare systems is not sufficient to compensate for the large number of doctors who are going to retire. Today, it is estimated that it will take two young doctors to replace every retiring one.
- The shortage of GPs also impacts on the quantity of patients that every doctor has to take care of, which often goes beyond the maximum threshold beyond which it becomes difficult to function and provide appropriate care.
- Additionally, many EU countries also feature massive inequalities in healthcare provisions between rural and urban areas, with the latter being less attractive for young doctors who are just starting their career.
- Given the huge plethora of causes, there can be no ‘miracle cure’ to solve the problem all at once. Rather, solutions should aim at prioritizing general medicine in higher education, improving salaries and working conditions, and gaining a better understanding of healthcare delivery.
Stories
In Portugal, more than 1.5 million patients registered on the National Health Service have no GP. But, in the last decade, the number of specialists trained in general and family medicine has increased. If this is so, why is there a shortage of doctors in primary care?
March 31, 2025
CINS journalists analyzed how many medical doctors there are in each district in Serbia, and what salaries prevail in healthcare and social work. They also looked at how the situation has changed since the coronavirus pandemic.
March 27, 2025
THE GP CRISIS has worsened over the past decade as a surge in population was
March 27, 2025
A surge in population hasn't been matched with an increase in GPs.
March 26, 2025
Europe is facing a shortage of doctors in all specialties. The shortage of general practitioners is a particular problem. GPs are ageing, they are unevenly distributed between different regions and the profession is not attracting the young people who could be its supply.
March 14, 2025
Downsizing, outsourcing, budget cuts: Greece's public healthcare system is reeling from a combination of chronic underfunding and austerity policies. As the quality of care declines and working conditions deteriorate, young doctors are increasingly tempted to leave the country.
March 14, 2025
Europe does not have enough primary-care doctors, and Belgium is no exception to the rule. Steps are now being taken to renew the country’s ranks, but the ageing of the population and upcoming retirements are raising fears of a crunch in the years to come.
February 19, 2025
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Europe is facing a shortage of doctors, across all specialisations. The deficit of general practitioners is a particular problem. Family doctors are ageing and unevenly distributed, and their profession is struggling to attract new recruits.
February 19, 2025
The data unit
Adrian Burtin (Voxeurop, coordinator)
is a French journalist currently based in Belgium. He graduated in narrative and investigative journalism from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. At Voxeurop, he covers mainly the topics of migration and asylum.
EDJNet members which took part in this investigation:
Adrian Burtin, Fabien Perrier
Kata Moravecz
Maria Delaney, Patricia Devlin
Teodora Ćurčić
Pedro Miguel Santos
Media uptakes
From EDJNet members:
- Voxeurop, Europe is short of general practitioners, 18/02/2025
- Voxeurop, Belgium’s shortage of GPs: a slow-burning crisis, 19/02/2025
- EUrologus (Hungary), Nem csak Magyarországon nincs elég háziorvos, Európában máshol is küzdenek a problémával, 01/03/2025
- Voxeurop, Healthcare in Greece: the ongoing ruination of a public service, 10/03/2025
- The Journal Investigates (Ireland), Ireland already has some medical deserts – and it’s been getting worse, 18/03/2025
- CINS (Serbia), GRAFIK: Kolike su plate u zdravstvu i socijalnom radu, 25/03/2025
- The Journal Investigates (Ireland), Powering through and praying: Our readers’ stories about the GP crisis in Ireland, 26/03/2025
