[Out-of-hours primary care in Germany: general practitioners' views on the current situation]

Area of Science:

• Primary Health Care Research
• Health Services Research
• General Practice

Background:

• Out-of-hours (OOH) primary care is crucial for patient access and service continuity.
• Understanding the perspectives of general practitioners (GPs) is vital for improving OOH services.
• Existing research often overlooks the distinct challenges faced in urban versus rural settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the views and experiences of German GPs regarding current out-of-hours service provision.
• To identify differences in perspectives between urban and rural GPs on OOH care.
• To inform strategies for optimizing OOH primary care quality in Germany.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive postal questionnaire was developed within the European Research Network for Out-of-Hours Primary Health Care (EurOOHnet) project.
• The survey targeted 410 general practice cooperatives across Germany.
• Qualitative content analysis using Atlas.ti was employed to analyze responses to open-ended questions.

Main Results:

• A response rate of 44% (181/410) was achieved.
• Key themes included organizational issues (e.g., financing) and infrastructure barriers (e.g., GP motivation).
• Rural GPs identified GP shortages and travel distances as significant concerns, differing from urban GP priorities.

Conclusions:

• Urban and rural primary care needs for out-of-hours services differ significantly.
• Tailored solutions are required to address the unique challenges and improve the quality of out-of-hours primary care in diverse settings.