Are public health physicians fading out of management?

Background: Recent developments in health services in the local arena in Norway have challenged the theoretical and applied scientific basis for both public health medicine and management. During the 1990s although public health physicians in Norway increased in number, they worked less with public health, as well as public health management. The effects of these developments on public health management are largely unknown. We studied public health physicians' involvement in management and their self-reported managerial competence.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of physicians working in local public health medicine in all Norwegian municipalities, using a mail-back questionnaire.

Results: Public health physicians reduced their administrative tasks and evaluated their own managerial competence rather conservatively and somewhat lower in 1999 than in 1994. Many had supplementary training in management in addition to their medical education and specialty training.

Conclusions: Public health physicians may be fading out of management. To address this there is a need for development of both public health management training programmes and provision of adequate resources for managerial activities.