General data on
Danish healthcare system
Royal Danish Embassy in Tokyo – March 2024

List of questions
 Medical expenditures in Denmark / per capita medical expenditures
 Number of hospitals, number of beds, number of clinics, number of pharmacies
 Number of doctors and nurses
 Whether to pay out-of-pocket when picking up prescription drugs at a pharmacy
 Number of outpatient visits per year Waiting days for inpatient treatment (average) Whether it is necessary to make an appointment when visiting a GP
 Satisfaction with medical care
 General public opinion on medical care
 Whether there are people who go to foreign hospitals while waiting for admission.

 Faculty of Medicine Capacity
 How doctors work (in the UK and France, many doctors work part-time and their working hours are short) Rate of female doctors

2Medical spendings Per capita medical expenditures in Denmark in 2022: 6,280 USD
 Medical expenditures as percent of GDP, 2022:
Government/
compulsory

Voluntary/
out-of-pocket

Total

Denmark

8.1%

1.4%

9.5%

Japan

9.8%

1.7%

11.5%

Source: Health at a Glance 2023 – OECD, pp. 157 & 1553

Medical facilities
 There were 2.5 hospital beds per1,000 people in Denmark in 2021
- Lower than the OECD average of
4.3- Much lower than Japan’s 12.6 beds
per 1,000 people
 40 public hospitals and 19 private
hospitals in Denmark No. of physicians (2019): 24,643
 No. of hospital beds: 13,973

 Pharmacies in Denmark (2021):- 227 pharmacies and 2 online
pharmacies- In addition: 80 branch pharmacies,
209 voluntarily establishedbranches, 24 pharmacy outlets,
about 350 over-the-counter outlets,
and about 400 medicine delivery
facilities (2021)

Source: Health at a Glance 2023 – OECD, p. 113 - Healthcare Resource Guide - Denmark (trade.gov) - Pharmacies in Denmark (laegemiddelstyrelsen.dk)

4

Nurses and doctors
 Practicing doctors per 1,000
population (2021):- Denmark: 4.4- Japan: 2.6

 Practicing nurses per 1,000
population (2021):- Denmark: 10.2
- Japan: 12.1

 Doctors by type (Denmark, 2021):- General practitioners: 18.2%- Specialists: 43.3%- Other* types of doctors: 38.5%*includes non-specialist doctors working in hospitals & recent
medical graduates who have yet to start specialty training

18.2

38.5

43.3

Source: Health at a Glance 2023 – OECD, pp. 177 & 185

GPsSpecialists

Other5

Share of female doctors
 In 2021, 54.5% of doctors inDenmark were women. The rate offemale doctors has risen sharply
from 36.2% in 2000
 In 2021, the rate of female doctors
in Japan was 22.7%, up from 14.3%
in 2000

Gender distribution among doctors
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%

0%
Denmark
Source: Health at a Glance 2023 – OECD, p. 179JapanFemaleMale6

Medical students
 In 2021, Denmark had 22 new medical
graduates per 100,000 population- Higher than the OECD average of 14.2
- Three times higher than Japan’s 7.2 medical
graduates per 100,000 population

Source: Health at a Glance 2023 – OECD, p. 179

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Waiting time for admission to hospitals
If Denmark’s regional hospitals cannot guarantee that treatment is initiatedwithin 30 days, the patient has a right to be treated at a private hospital inDenmark or even a public or private hospital abroad.
- This does not cover select treatments like organ transplants.
- The maximum waiting period has been temporarily extended to 60 days
until December 31, 2024

Source: Indhold (sum.dk) p. 7 - Frit sygehusvalg | Borger | Sundhedsstyrelsen8GP – appointment or not?
In Denmark, you generally have to book an appointment with your GP inadvance. Most doctors have telephone hours on weekdays between 8:00
and 9:00 AM – during this time, it is possible to book an appointment.
You can also book an appointment with your GP online through sundhed.dk.

Source: Your own physician (GP) (regionh.dk)

9Picking up prescription drugs
Prescription drugs are often reimbursed. The reimbursed amount is
automatically deducted from the prescription drug price when you buy themedicine at the pharmacy.
The more prescription medicine you buy within a year, the more
reimbursement you will receive. The amount of reimbursement is based on
the cheapest available medicine with a specific active substance.
The first reimbursement threshold for persons over the age of 18 is at 1,075
DKK or approx. 157 USD (1 DKK = 0.15 USD) annually, and triggers a 50%
reimbursement.
The maximum annual co-payment from patients is 4,575 DKK or 666 USD.
Inpatient prescription drugs (in hospitals) are fully covered.
Source: Reimbursement and prices (laegemiddelstyrelsen.dk) - Reimbursement thresholds (laegemiddelstyrelsen.dk) - Denmark | International Health Care System Profiles | Commonwealth Fund

10

Healthcare satisfaction
 81% of Danes report being satisfied with the availability of healthcare
where they live (2021)
 Japan: 76%
 OECD average: 67%

 1.2% of Danes report having unmet needs for medical care (2021)
 OECD average: 2.3%

Source: Health at a Glance 2023 – OECD, pp. 101 & 103

11Doctors’ working hours
 Chief surgeons/chief physicians in Denmark are reported to work 47.6
hours per week (2021)
 In addition, 4 out of 10 chief surgeons/chief physicians also work side jobs,
which add 18.2 hours to their monthly workload on average

Source: Ny undersøgelse: Overlæger arbejder i gennemsnit 47,6 timer om ugen - plus bijob for manges vedkommende (jyllands-posten.dk)

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Healthcare utilization
 In Denmark: 5.93 total doctor
consultations annually per person(in person and remote) (2020)
 In Japan: 11.13 visits per capita- The above numbers include visits
to the physician’s office, visits inthe patient’s home, visits to
outpatient departments in
hospitals, etc.

Source: Healthcare in Numbers (healthcaredenmark.dk), “Healthcare Utilisation – consultations” - In 2022: the total number ofhospital admissions (minimum 12hours) in Denmark was 792,337
 This amounts to 134.3 hospital
admissions per 1,000 people (basedon population estimate of5,900,000)

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Mortality rate The preventable mortality rate in
Denmark in 2021 was 120 per
100,000 people OECD average: 158

Source: Health at a Glance 2023: Highlights for Denmark (oecd.org), p. 2

 The treatable mortality rate in
Denmark in 2021 was 54 per
100,000 people OECD average: 7914