Changes in location and number of nurse consultations as the supply of general practitioners decreases in primary health care: six-year register-based follow-up cohort study in the city of Vantaa, Finland

Figures & data

Table 1. Number of inhabitants and practical and registered nurses working in the primary health care centres of the City of Vantaa, Finland between 2009 and 2014.

Year	Inhabitants (n)	Practical nurses (n)	Registered nurses (n)
2009	195 397	550	293
2010	197 636	580	315
2011	200 055	597	314
2012	203 001	609	306
2013	205 312	588	328
2014	208 098	594	339

Table 2. Median number of monthly office-hour and emergency department consultations with practical and registered nurses per 1000 inhabitants in the City of Vantaa, Finland between 2009 and 2014. The statistical comparisons used the corresponding figures from 2009.

	Practical nurses						Registered nurses
Year	All consultations	p-value*	Office-hour consultations	p-value*	Emergency department consultations	p-value*	All consultations	p-value*	Office-hour consultations	p-value*	Emergency department consultations	p-value*
2009	17.7 (15.5–17.1)		16.0 (13.8–17.8)		1.6 (1.3–1.7)		50.5 (44.7–54.7)		46.8 (40.9–51.1)		3.6 (3.0–4.0)
2010	17.0 (15.9– 18.6)	ns	15.7 (14.3–16.8)	ns	1.6 (1.4–1.8)	ns	53.8 (47.9–60.5)	ns	50.3 (44.5–57.1)	ns	3.0 (2.7–3.1)	ns
2011	23.7 (20.6–25.6)	<0.001	12.3 (11–13.3)	0.006	11.2 (9.9–12.5)	<0.001	57.0 (52.6–64.7)	0.006	46.8 (44.5–54.6)	ns	9.8 (8.2–10.7)	<0.001
2012	21.7 (19.9–23.9)	<0.001	8.7 (7.9–10.6)	<0.001	12.9 (11.8–14.0)	<0.001	58.9 (52.1–60.6)	ns	45.0 (40.9–48.0)	ns	11.8 (10.9–13.7)	<0.001
2013	25.5 (24.5–27.2)	<0.001	12.1 (10.9–13.0)	0.006	13.1 (12.8–14.4)	<0.001	54.1 (48.8–62.7)	ns	42.9 (35.2–49.7)	ns	12.2 (10.8–13.4)	<0.001
2014	25.2 (22.7–30.8)	<0.001	12.6 (11.3–19.8)	ns	10.5 (10.3–12.2)	<0.001	56.5 (52.1–59.9)	0.038	42.9 (37.1–43.8)	ns	14.5 (13.0–16.6)	<0.001

*compared to 2009, Tukey test. ‘ns’: not statistically significant, medians (interquartile range 25%–75%) are presented.

Figure 1. Presents the raw values and regression slopes of monthly office-hour consultations and consultations with registered (A) and practical (B) nurses in emergency department.