offered by smaller health service suppliers are more limited and less available.
The findings for availability show that worse perceived health status
was associated with decreased specialist availability, but no similar effect
emerged for chronic conditions. This may be because chronic diseases are
usually treated on a regular basis by the family physician and/or special
units for chronic diseases and therefore were not significant in explaining
availability. Referrals to specialists are usually made whenever there are
new medical problems or deterioration in their condition. Thus, although
perceived health status and morbidity were found to be positively significantly
correlated, the impact of perceived health status on the availability
of specialists is different and stronger than morbidity. This point merits furt