Backround and Aim: This qualitative study was carried out on a group of physicians who are working in the primary health care services, to investigate the problems between physicians and patients, the causes of these problems and suggestions for solution.

Methods: Our qualitative study was conducted with the participation of 18 physicians, 14 of them were working in family health centers and 4 of them working in community health centers in a district of Istanbul’s Anatolian side. The data were collected by three semi-structured focus group interviews and seven in-depth interviews.

Results: The most frequently encountered problems of the physicians in our research were the requests of unnecessary prescription, violence against physicians, examination rank related problems, visit requests during overtime work hours, unnecessary complaints by the patients to the authorities and communication problems. The main reasons for these problems were misrepresentation of primary health care services, some administrative reasons, and lack of communication skills of physicians and patients. Solution proposals offered were; establishing new institutions to provide counseling to physicians for legal issues, improving communication skills, applying sanctions to prevent unnecessary complaints, and some recommendations for administrative reasons.

Conclusion: According to our findings, the majority of primary care’s physicians are having some problems with patients due to various reasons. It is estimated that the data obtained from this study sheds light on important parts of the problem. The results can be evaluated by the authorities and suggestions can be used to improve the services.