Family doctor shortages make appointments hard to book
Sunday 15th November 2026 on 00:01 in
Iceland
Iceland’s shortage of family doctors is making it difficult for patients to book appointments, Oddur Steinarsson told mbl.is. He is managing director of Kirkjusandur Health Centre and vice-chair of the Icelandic Medical Association.
Steinarsson said the health system needs to examine how it allocates funding and staff. Resources are limited, he said, and the way they are used may contribute to the difficulties people face when trying to see their family doctor.
Dozens of nurses handle online chats and calls at the Capital Area Primary Health Care Information Centre. They often respond to several messages and calls about the same matter, Steinarsson said. He questioned whether this was the best use of their time and suggested that more staff could instead be assigned to direct healthcare services.
mbl.is reported on Friday that a mother trying to book an appointment with a primary care doctor for her son spent half an hour waiting in an online chat, searched unsuccessfully through the Heilsuvera booking system and called the health centre. She ended up back where she started without an appointment.
Steinarsson said the Capital Area has 15 public health centres and four privately run centres operating under contracts with the state. The private centres are not part of the same booking process and generally have an advantage, he said. At Kirkjusandur, patients can book directly with the centre or their own doctor, either online or by phone.
He attributed the booking difficulties primarily to staff shortages. A manual count conducted by a colleague in the spring found fewer than 200 family doctors working in Iceland, he said. Steinarsson compared that with Norway, where each doctor had 991 registered patients in the summer of 2025. He said Iceland’s family-doctor staffing level was roughly half that of Norway, making direct access to appointments more difficult.
Steinarsson said public primary care must also answer for the problems people face when trying to book appointments.