[New positions for physicians in Norway 1979-88. A study of advertised vacant positions]

Maldistribution of physicians has been a recurrent problem in industrialized countries for more than two hundred years. Several causes have been suggested. This paper tests the hypothesis that the main reason was a rapid increase in the demand for medical manpower. During the years 1979-88, 1,656 new positions were advertised in the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association. A large number of new positions were advertised in 1979, rather few in the period 1980-83 and very few in the period 1986-87. Most of the increased demand stems from public hospitals and quite little from private health care and occupational health services. Apparently the Primary Health Care Act of 1984 has had only a marginal influence on the market for medical manpower. Vacant positions in remote areas coincided with periods of rapid increase in the demand for medical manpower. However, as competing hypotheses have not been tested, no final conclusions are justified.