Measures to improve doctor office infrastructure and to enhance responsiveness towards patients under the age of 35 years and those with health problems are vital to increase responsiveness.

This study reveals that a high frequency of GP and SP consultations is primarily associated with self-assessed poor health, indicating that prioritisation is based on clinical need. In order to ensure the same needs-based prioritisation in the access to outpatient healthcare, regulatory measures are required to decrease wait times of more than one month for SP appointments, with a special focus on people with statutory health insurance coverage, residents of eastern Germany and the elderly.

ask-shifting from doctors to members of various non-medical specialized professions is routine practice in the Anglo-Saxon countries and Scandinavia (1, 2). In Germany only narrowly defined medical tasks (MT) are delegated, mostly to Qualified Medical Practice Assistants (MPA) (eBox) (3,4). Although the concept of redistributing certain medical activities has existed since 1975 (5), the requirements, as well as the services eligible for delegation, were first defined in 2013 (6). The prerequisite of delegating tasks is supervision by the physician who has the authority to issue instructions. She or he has the duty of selection, instruction, and supervision (5) and retains full responsibility.The reallocation of MT to MPA is considered a practicable strategy to counteract the consequences of demographic change and shortage of physicians, especially in rural areas. The aim is to create structures that make it possible to maintain the quality of care and simultaneously alleviate doctors' workload (2,7,8).In recent years in Germany, various training models have been used to qualify MPA to take over tasks eligible for delegation and equip them to carry out specific tasks (7, 9). In evaluating these projects the perspectives of the participating physicians, MPA, and patients on the delegation have been studied (7,(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18). Altogether the results show that delegation was broadly acceptable to all participants (15,18,19). Almost nothing is known, however, about attitudes in the general population, independently of previous experience.For Germany, the results of two survey studies are currently available: Höppner's purely descriptive study on the basis of a representative population survey carried out in 2007 shows that about half of the participants were prepared to consult an MPA instead of a physician for minor illnesses (e.g., colds, gastrointestinal problems, or headache) (20). Data from a nationwide survey of members of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV, Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung) in 2017 indicate a greater readiness to be treated by an MPA for minor illnesses than for chronic disorders (21).