[More effective surgical care and its regional organisation (author's transl)]

The decrease of the number of surgical cases within the past few years was not essentially due to the decrease of the number of hospital surgeons or to the decrease of the number of beds in surgical units. Decrease in the length of stay and increase in bed occupancy rate might effectively respond to increasing demands. A community comprising about 60 000 inhabitants will occupy a fulltime outpatient surgeon. Smaller communities should be served by an integrate inpatient-outpatient service. There is no need for each surgical unit to run a separate emergency service of its own.