[High admission rates--deficient communication between primary and secondary health care levels?]

GPs in Lofoten in the county of Nordland, Norway, were asked to consider and to propose suggestions for reducing the admission rates to the Department of Internal Medicine, Lofoten Hospital. The main suggestions were to open an outpatient clinic for emergency patients, improve the continuity among the GPs in primary care, increase the number of beds in nursing homes, and to establish a new forum where GPs and hospital doctors could meet. All suggestions, directly or indirectly expressed a need of closer collaboration and a better dialogue between doctors in primary and secondary health care. Only half of the GPs believed it would be possible to reduce the number of admissions to the hospital. This view might reflect some scepticism concerning the current organisation of the Norwegian health care services, and if so, there is a challenge to experiment with other organisation models.