Analysis of Opinion Survey Concerning the Family Doctor System for Primary Care Practitioners in Japan

Abstract

A web-based opinion survey was conducted on the function of primary care physicians during the period is from April 1, 2022 to May 31, 2022. Invitation letters to participate in the survey were sent to 27,707 facilities, and valid responses were received from 1,286 （4.6％）. By age group, 60-69 years old accounted for 33％, followed by 50-59 years old（32％） and 40-49 years old （17％）. In terms of primary care physician functions, they evaluated “referral of patients to other medical institutions”（89％） as the most important function, followed by “preparation of primary physician opinions for the Long Term Care Insurance”（85％）, and “acceptance of patient referrals from other medical institutions”（84％）, “Vaccination” （82％）, “Specific health checkup”（71％）, “Home visit” （70％）. Comparing these results with the responses to things that are “currently being done” or that “have been done’ in the past”, the percentages were almost the same for most of the items. In response to the question, “Do you think you are fulfilling the function of a primary care physician?”, 79％ of the respondents answered that they “perform adequately” and “relatively fulfill the function.” Regarding the evaluation of primary care physician functions in medical fees, overall, 36％ responded that they preferred the lump-sum payment, and 57％ of respondents preferred the fee-for-service payment. From the results of this analysis, it can be concluded that many physicians consider themselves to be performing the primary care function. This is different from the recognition of the fiscal authorities and the public. It is considered that the urgent task in the future is to examine the cause of this perception gap.