We draw on an ongoing study of an electronic booking project at the University Hospital
North Norway where general practitioners are given the opportunity to book appointments
at the hospital for their patients. Electronic booking offers well-defined and standardised
services as well as standardised procedures for preparing the patient for the appointment
at the hospital. We examine how the standards inscribed in the booking system shape
medical work and how they bring to the surface a social dilemma between collective and
individual interests in how the key actors reflect on the consequences of the system. We
combine two social theories, namely Actor Network Theory and the theory of collective
action. As a conclusion, we argue that simple and well-defined cases of patients’ problems
and willingness among the general practitioners to undertake work traditionally conducted
at the hospital are conditions for making electronic booking successful. However, when the
patients’ problems are unclear the booking system needs to be combined with traditional
referrals. We also point to how the general practitioners’ attitude towards the system is
time-dependent. Their initial positive attitude towards the potential public goods produced
by booking transforms into putting more weight on the individual