Abstract
Abstract. Primary health care is considered to be one of the most important aspects of the health care system in any country, which directly helps in improving the health of the population. Potential spatial accessibility is a very important component of the primary health care system. One technique for studying spatial accessibility is by computing a gravity-based measure within a geographic information system (GIS) framework. In this study, straight-line distances between the associated population clusters and the health facilities and the provider-to-population ratio were used to compute the spatial accessibility of the population clusters for the whole country. Bhutan has been chosen as the case study area because it is quite easy to acquire and process data for the whole country due to its small size and population. The spatial accessibility measure of the 203 sub-districts shows noticeable disparities in health care accessibility in this country with about only 19 sub-districts achieving good health accessibility ranking. This study also examines a number of different health accessibility policy scenarios which can assist in identifying the most effective health policy from amongst many probable planning scenarios. Such a health accessibility measuring system can be incorporated into an existing spatial health system in developing countries to facilitate the proper planning and equitable distribution of health resources.
Highlights
Primary health care (PHC) is an important aspect of the healthcare system in many countries which has helped in administering and managing population health
In Bhutan, primary healthcare is delivered to the majority of the population through hospitals, basic health units (BHU) and outreach clinics (ORC)
It is possible to achieve nationally or universally accepted healthcare coverage by spatially planning the location of health facilities and health care providers based on the population demand for the health services and the commuting distance between the locations of the healthcare providers and the population
Summary
Primary health care (PHC) is an important aspect of the healthcare system in many countries which has helped in administering and managing population health. In Bhutan, primary healthcare is delivered to the majority of the population through hospitals, basic health units (BHU) and outreach clinics (ORC). The ease of access to primary healthcare services and availability of primary health care providers are important aspects of the healthcare delivery system (Aday and Anderson, 1981). Access to healthcare can be segregated in to two parts: potential for healthcare delivery and realized delivery of care (Aday and Anderson, 1981). Potential healthcare refers to the potential need for health care services of all the population within a healthcare servicing region. Realized healthcare refers to the actual utilization of healthcare services by the needy population. This study will only examine the spatial components of the healthcare accessibility system, which are commonly referred to as spatial accessibility
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