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X : The cottage hospital model may be defined as an intermediary service between primary care and the general hospital. On the basis of experience and studies from Finnmark county, the northern-most county in Norway, this article makes a case for a revival of the cottage hospitals. They may improve comprehensive patient care and cooperation between care levels, to the benefit of groups of patients who often are in a squeeze between care levels: the elderly, the chronically ill, and the severely ill and dying patients. The cottage hospitals may also contribute to strengthening the chain of service in acute medicine. The professional challenges of work in a cottage hospital may attract practitioners to primary health care. We suggest that 1% of the funds set aside for ongoing national programmes for the elderly, in cancer care and mental illnesses are used for cottage hospital beds, as this may contribute to increasing the viability of these programmes. The extra cost upgrading 1,000 of a total of 27,000 nursing home beds in Norway to cottage hospital standard is estimated to be modest.

MeSH