46 research outputs found
Spatial accessibility and social inclusion: The impact of Portugal's last health reform
Health policies seek to promote access to health care and should provide appropriate geographical accessibility to each demographical functional group. The dispersal demand of healthâcareservices and the provision for such services atfixed locations contribute to the growth of inequality intheir access. Therefore, the optimal distribution of health facilities over the space/area can lead toaccessibility improvements and to the mitigation of the social exclusion of the groups considered mostvulnerable. Requiring for such, the use of planning practices joined with accessibility measures. However,the capacities of Geographic Information Systems in determining and evaluating spatial accessibility inhealth system planning have not yet been fully exploited. This paper focuses on healthâcare services planningbased on accessibility measures grounded on the network analysis. The case study hinges on mainlandPortugal. Different scenarios were developed to measure and compare impact on the population'saccessibility. It distinguishes itself from other studies of accessibility measures by integrating network data ina spatial accessibility measure: the enhanced twoâstepfloating catchment area. The convenient location forhealthâcare facilities can increase the accessibility standards of the population and consequently reducethe economic and social costs incurred. Recently, the Portuguese government implemented a reform thataimed to improve, namely, the access and equity in meeting with the most urgent patients. It envisaged,in terms of equity, the allocation of 89 emergency network points that ensured more than 90% of thepopulation be within 30 min from any one point in the network. Consequently, several emergency serviceswere closed, namely, in rural areas. This reform highlighted the need to improve the quality of the emergencycare, accessibility to each care facility, and equity in their access. Hence, accessibility measures becomean efficient decisionâmaking tool, despite its absence in effective practice planning. According to anapplication of this type of measure, it was possible to verify which levels of accessibility were decreased,including the most disadvantaged people, with a larger time of dislocation of 12 min between 2001 and 2011
Spatio-temporal modelling and analysis of spatial accessibility to primary health care: A case study of Bhutan
Both spatial and aspatial dimensions of healthcare system are important in strengthening the healthcare system of any country. Knowing the spatial aspects of healthcare accessibility can help develop proper health policies in planning equitable allocation of health resources across the country. This thesis deals with the modelling of population and spatial accessibility using GIS, and an analysis of spatial and temporal changes in accessibility to healthcare services in Bhutan
Using Geographic Information Systems to investigate variations in accessibility to âextended hoursâ primary healthcare provision
There are ongoing policy concerns surrounding the difficulty in obtaining timely appointments to primary healthcare services and the potential impact on, for example, attendance at accident and emergency services and potential health outcomes. Using the case study of potential access to primary healthcare services in Wales, Geographic Information System (GIS)âbased tools that permit a consideration of populationâtoâprovider ratios over space are used to examine variations in geographical accessibility to general practitioner (GP) surgeries offering appointment times outside of âcoreâ operating hours. Correlation analysis is used to explore the association of accessibility scores with potential demand for such services using UK Population Census data. Unlike the situation in England, there is a tendency for accessibility to those surgeries offering âextendedâ hours of appointment times to be better for more deprived census areas in Wales. However, accessibility to surgeries offering appointments in the evening was associated with lower levels of working age population classed as âeconomically activeâ; that is, those who could be targeted beneficiaries of policies geared towards âextendedâ appointment hours provision. Such models have the potential to identify spatial mismatches of different facets of primary healthcare, such as âextendedâ hours provision available at GP surgeries, and are worthy of further investigation, especially in relation to policies targeted at particular demographic groups