[Why do patients change physicians?].

The purpose of this investigation was to describe why patients change their general practitioners (GP) by the means of questionnaires. Questionnaires were given 357 patients who had changed GPs in 1990 and 206 (58%) returned the questionnaire. The most common reasons were dissatisfaction with the quality of the service provided, too little time allowed or lack of communication between patient and doctor. Women accounted for approximately 75% of the total number and preferred female GPs, whereas men who changed doctors probably did so because they wanted to have the same GP as their families. The frequency of change was about 1% and most of the patients had stuck to the same GP for several years before changing.