How does general practitioner discontinuity affect healthcare utilisation? An observational cohort study of 2.4 million Norwegians 2007-2017.

Objectives: Patients may benefit from continuity of care by a personal physician general practitioner (GP), but there are few studies on consequences of a break in continuity of GP. Investigate how a sudden discontinuity of GP care affects their list patients' regular GP consultations, out-of-hours consultations and acute hospital admissions, including admissions for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC).

Design: Cohort study linking person-level national register data on use of health services and GP affiliation with data on GP activity and GP characteristics.

Increasing workload in Norwegian general practice - a qualitative study.

Background: General practitioners (GPs) play a key role in securing and coordinating appropriate use of healthcare services, by providing primary and preventive healthcare and by acting as gatekeepers for secondary healthcare services. Historically, European GPs have reported high job satisfaction, attributed to high autonomy and good compatibility with family life. However, a trend of increasing workload in general practice has been seen in several European countries, including Norway, leading to recruitment problems and concerns about the well-being of both GPs and patients.