title: [Physicians in primary health care in Northern Norway 1995-97].
abstract: Recruiting general practitioners to Northern Norway is increasingly difficult. In 1997, 28% of all positions in primary health care in the counties of Nordland, Troms and Finnmark were vacant. Problems were worst in the small municipalities with a population of less than 4,000 with 37% of all positions vacant. The insufficient coverage of curative and acute health services is in part compensated for by a great number of short stay physicians. A cross-sectional study in the three northern countries in october 1998 showed that 68% of all general practitioners had Norwegian as their native language. In the small municipalities less than half the physicians were Norwegians.
mesh_terms: D003081:Cold Climate; D004651:Employment; D005194:Family Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D009664:Norway; D010560:Personnel Selection; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000078329:Workforce