[General practitioners in hospital]

Different models of hospital-primary care collaboration are tried out throughout Norway. It is necessary to look into whether these programmes lead to behavioral changes and, in turn, whether this benefits the patients. In 1995, a general practitioner in Arendal, Norway, initiated a local hospital visiting programme for all general practitioners in the county. The general practitioners were invited to visit one of the departments of the local hospital two weeks every year over a five-year period and thus to get to know all the departments. The aim was to give general practitioners more knowledge of the hospital departments and their doctors, while at the same time giving hospital doctors the opportunity to meet the general practitioners in their catchment area, thus enhancing the collaboration between hospital and primary care through personal contact. One beneficial effect might be quicker access to specialist consultations, as more controls after hospital treatment could be transferred to primary care. This evaluation is based on a survey among hospital departments (12 out of 16 responding) and general practitioners (60 out of 95 responding) who were invited to participate. All respondents wanted the programme to continue. Both hospital doctors and general practitioners were very satisfied with the programme and believed that it would lead to better collaboration between these two levels of our health care system.