General practitioners and dentists
 05. Sep 2021
An average of 3.5 GP visits per person last year

The total number of GP visits in 2020 was just over 185,000, an 11% increase on 2019. About 25,000 of these consultations were carried out over the phone due to the Covid-19 situation. People residing abroad accounted for about 2% of the total number of GP consultations.

There were just over 11% more GP consultations in 2020 than in 2019 and 46% more than in 2016.

Summary of GP activity in 2020:

  • There was an average of 3.5 GP visits per inhabitant in 2020
  • More women than men visited GPs
  • School-age children were the least frequent GP visitors
  • The 70+ age group visited GPs most frequently
  • Most daytime GP consultations took place in Norðoyggjar and Suðuroy
  • Sandoy had the highest per capita number of GP visits and Suðuroy the lowest

The figures do not include prophylactic consultations such as vaccinations, birth control guidance, health checks of pregnant women and medical examinations of children.

The data, provided by the Public Health Insurance, covers the 2016-2020 period and outlines the distribution of GP consultations according to area of residence, time of day, age and sex.

Phone and online consultations are also not included.

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There were, on average, 3.5 GP consultations per Faroese resident across the country in 2020, compared to 3.1 in 2019. The number of consultations varies across the regions, with Suðuroy having the lowest figure (2.9%) and Sandoy the highest (6.0%).

The table above also shows significant change from 2019 to 2020 in consultation frequency across the regions. The number increased by 30% in Sandoy, 16% in Norðoyggjar and 15% in Suðurstreymoy.

In Suðuroy, the number dropped by 2%. Here it should be noted that the statistics are significantly affected when a GP retires or a new GP is appointed.

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A vast majority of consultations (95%) took place during office hours (Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm). The remaining 5% are evenly spread between evening shifts and night/weekend shifts.

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The figures vary across the main regions in terms of time of day.

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Looking at age and sex, we see that women accounted for 24,000 more GP consultations than men. The sex ratio for GP visits in 2020 was 56% women and 44% men. In the 0-15 age groups, however, the ratio was roughly equal.

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With 1.6-1.7 visits per person, school-age children were the least frequent GP visitors in 2019. This frequency then increases gradually with age, topping at 5.5 to 6.6 consultations per person in the 75+ age groups.


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See more graphs
All tables (Statbank)