Introduction

The family medicine specialty is one of the youngest in the country, having the same selection process as all specialties, but it has less projection and recognition at the national level within the medical profession.

Objective

To know the perception that the patient has about the family doctor.

Method

Mixed study with a phenomenological method, a non-probabilistic study was carried out for convenience, a semi-structured interview instrument, until theoretical saturation was reached.

Results

Fifteen interviews were carried out from the data analysis, 4 categories were obtained: prior knowledge, doctor-patient relationship, medical care, and institutional organization. Only 2 patients perceived family doctors as specialists, without being clear about their focus and field, the remaining 13 patients perceived family doctors as general doctors, since the care provided was from a reductionist approach, leaving out everything that the family doctor must perform holistically.

Conclusions

The perception of patients about the family doctor is reductionist, since they classify him as a general doctor, who only is trained to grant consultation without a holistic approach.