Objective: To study the geographic size of out-of-hours districts, the availability of defibrillators and use of the national radio network in Norway.
Design: Survey.
Setting: The emergency primary healthcare system in Norway.
Subjects: A total of 282 host municipalities responsible for 260 out-of-hours districts.
Main outcome measures: Size of out-of-hours districts, use of national radio network and access to a defibrillator in emergency situations.
Results: The out-of-hours districts have a wide range of areas, which gives a large variation in driving time for doctors on call. The median longest transport time for doctors in Norway is 45 minutes. In 46% of out-of-hours districts doctors bring their own defibrillator on emergency callouts. Doctors always use the national radio network in 52% of out-of-hours districts. Use of the radio network and access to a defibrillator are significantly greater in out-of-hours districts with a host municipality of fewer then 5000 inhabitants compared with host municipalities of more than 20,000 inhabitants.
Conclusion: In half of out-of-hours districts doctors on call always use the national radio network. Doctors in out-of-hours districts with a host municipality of fewer than 5000 inhabitants are in a better state of readiness to attend an emergency, compared with doctors working in larger host municipalities.