BACKGROUND The Norwegian hospital reform of 2002 aimed at improving several aspects of the health-care service, i.e. the definition of responsibility between hospitals and their owners, equality in access to hospital-based health services, the quality of medical work, organisation of hospitals and productivity. This paper describes to what extent hospital-based physicians consider these aims to have been achieved. METHODS A postal questionnaire was disseminated to 2 500 hospital-based physicians in January 2006. The questions comprised work conditions and remuneration, organisational matters and the perceived results of the 2002 hospital reform. The respondents were asked to compare the situation in 2006 with the pre-reform situation, and to assess whether the situation was closer or further away from the aims. RESULTS 1,298 of the doctors responded, i.e. a response rate of 53%. The average opinion was that the aims regarding organisation, access to hospital-based health services, and quality of medical work had become more distant. 38% stated that the aim to improve the quality of medical work was more distant than before the reform as opposed to 8% who perceived it as being closer. 58% of the physicians thought productivity had increased after the reform. There were some regional differences; e.g. the physicians in the southern region experienced stronger than those in the other four regions that responsibility between hospitals and hospital owners was less defined and the quality of medical work was worse than before the reform. 49% of the respondents felt that the hospital reform had mainly had a negative impact on hospitals, whereas 18% felt that the impact had been positive.