Swiss healthcare cost containment policies and their impact on anaesthetists' density and satisfaction.

Introduction: To control healthcare costs, Federal and Cantonal states have introduced policies to limit expenses and the number of practising physicians. It is unclear to date whether these policies have had a real impact on anaesthetists in Switzerland. The aim of the current study was to assess the density, characteristics and satisfaction of anaesthetists in Latin Switzerland and to compare the results with data collected before the introduction of cost containment policies in 2002.