[Occupational physicians in Norway--the number and work hours. An indicator of the development of occupational health services?].

We do not know the present size of the occupational health service in Norway, and we have no certain knowledge about occupational health physicians. Many of them are not registered in our health personnel registry. In 1971 there were 663 occupational health physicians. They did about 2% of the total work of Norwegian doctors. When the data in the health personnel registry are adjusted, they indicate that Norway should have somewhat more than 1,100 occupational health physicians in 1986, doing roughly 5% of the work of all doctors. However, in addition to the above, there is extensive "contact with doctors through the place of work". In a national survey conducted in 1983, one million employees said that this possibility was open to them. In 1988 the Directorate of Labour Inspection recorded only 550,000 employees offered an occupational health service. It is unknown what kind of service the other 450,000 employees receive, who delivers it, and how many hours of work this takes.