Abstract
Spatial accessibility is an important factor for planning healthcare services to maintain a quality life for the metropolitan area. The metropolitan suburb is a special area for its location and rapidly changing population during urbanization. Taking Qingpu district, a suburb of Shanghai as a case, this study evaluated the spatial accessibility to healthcare services of 203 villages and neighborhoods based on the Two-Step Floating Catchment Area (2SFCA) method by ArcGIS software. The result shows that the spatial accessibility in the whole district is quite uneven under lower thresholds, and the spatial differences are beyond the traditional zoning of East Qingpu, New City and West Qingpu. The worst accessibility was mainly distributed at the edges of Jinze, Liantang and Zhujiajiao, while the best accessibility was mainly distributed in the New City and the region close around it. The average value of the spatial accessibility in Qingpu is 2.84, with a reach equal under 90 min threshold by bus index of 2.85, or an under 60 min threshold by self-driving index of 2.70. Secondly, the difference shows a new pattern, that is the spatial accessibility could be affected by both the New City and the Central City. Thirdly, the transportation mode, urbanization, the density of road network and bus lines, as well as the number of doctors in each healthcare service would directly affect the spatial accessibility. Lastly, in order to improve the spatial accessibility in metropolitan suburbs, greater effort is needed in increasing the numbers of bus stations and doctors, especially the areas which are farthest from the New City or the Central City, such as Jinze, and Lian Tang town in Qingpu. We acknowledge that the public transportation is vital to the accessibility to healthcare services. We also emphasize that healthcare services should be planned based on the anticipated future trends of population agglomeration. Our results for Shanghai are applicable to other big cities that are experiencing similar rapid urbanization in China, or other developing countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, South America and Africa.
Highlights
Healthcare is one of the most basic necessities needed to maintain a civilized society and normal quality of life for its population [1]
The spatial distribution under 30 min threshold indicates that the good spatial accessibility to healthcare services is beyond the traditional zoning of East Qingpu, New City and West Qingpu
The most enlightening finding is that the differences of spatial accessibility to healthcare services is beyond the traditional zoning of East Qingpu, New City and West Qingpu, and the results are not similar to those of large scale studies [20,21,22]
Summary
Healthcare is one of the most basic necessities needed to maintain a civilized society and normal quality of life for its population [1]. In 1978, the International Conference on Primary Healthcare asserted that health is a human right, and healthcare should be accessible, affordable, and socially relevant [2]. In 2005, the 58th World Health Assembly issued a call on member states for universal health coverage, which means that every citizen can use good quality, promotional, preventative, curative, and rehabilitative health services when required, without experiencing financial hardship [3]. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 225; doi:10.3390/ijerph16020225 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
