Table I.
Characteristics of Danish and Dutch primary care.
| Characteristics | Denmark | The Netherlands |
| Daytime primary care: | ||
| Number of patients per full-time GP | 1600 | 2250 to 2500 |
| Opening hours | 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. | 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Practice staff | About 0.7 staff per 1 full-time GP | About 1.3 staff per 1 full-time GP |
| Role in palliative care | Own GP takes care of patients staying at home | Own GP takes care of patients staying at home |
| Care during pregnancy | By GPs and midwives | Mostly by midwives |
| Preventive care children | By GP | Special organizations for vaccination and prevention, using specialist physicians; cure by GPs |
| Surgical procedures | Standard minor surgery (extra fee-for-service) | Standard traumata and elective surgery (extra fee-for-service 63 euros) |
| Home care | Average home visits by own GP 3 per week; also special home care nurses | Special home care nurses; home visits by own GP average of 20 per week |
| Threshold to primary care | No additional payment | No additional payment |
| Payment of GPs | Capitation 30% and fee-for-service 70% | Capitation 70% and fee-for-service 30% |
| Out-of-hours acute care: | ||
| Number of GPs per setting | Per setting about 300 to 1000 GPs are linked, but not all do the OOH shifts themselves (in some regions less than 50%) | 50 to 250 GPs per setting |
| Number of patients per setting | 580 000 to 1 736 000 | 100 000 to 500 000 |
| Opening hours | 4 p.m. to 8 a.m., weekends, holidays | 5 p.m. to 8 a.m., weekends, holidays |
| Distance to consultation centre for OOH primary care | Distance is max 50 km | Distance on average is max 30 km |
| Telephone triage | GPs | Nurses and physician assistants, supervised by GPs |
| Role in palliative care | Both GPs themselves and outsourced to the OOH primary care | 75% themselves or colleagues in daily practice, 25% outsourced to the OOH primary care |
| Role ED–OOH primary care–ambulance | Shared telephone access in one region | Increasing tendency of collocation and collaboration of primary care setting and ED (about 70% collaborating) |
| Threshold to care to acute care | No additional payment | No additional payment |
| Financing of OOH primary care | OOH primary care is fully covered by the nationwide tax-paid health insurance
(public funding), expect for medication Citizens can opt for private insurance additionally |
The statutory health insurance system is financed through a nationally defined
income-related contribution and through community-rated premiums set by each insurer (private
insurance) OOH primary care is fully covered by the insurance, except for medication and diagnostic tests (own risk for citizen) |
| Payment of GPs | Fee-for-service, varying for type of contact | Fee per hour (63 euros) |
| Re-registration as GP | No criteria | A minimum of 50 hours of OOH shifts per year is a criterion for re-registration as a GP (25 hours for GPs with a GP registration > 25 years) |