European GP workforce
There are various models of primary health care around Europe and GP roles within these systems vary widely. In Germany, primary care doctor training is similar to that in the UK, with a substantial period of postgraduate medical training after qualification, followed by specialist training assessments before independent practice. The German system also matches the NHS when it comes to workforce shortages, with growing concerns about the shortage of primary care doctors. These workforce problems prompted researchers from Leipzig Medical School to investigate medical career choices by analysing a survey that was completed by 659 German medical graduates.1 They found, rather unsurprisingly, that working conditions and the negative external presentation of …