IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i22p14656-d966476.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Research on the Equity and Optimal Allocation of Basic Medical Services in Guangzhou in the Context of COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Jin Li

    (School of Geography and Remote Sensing, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China)

  • Jie Li

    (School of Geography and Remote Sensing, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China)

  • Jian Huang

    (School of Geography and Remote Sensing, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China)

Abstract

Optimizing the allocation of basic medical services and ensuring their equity are necessary to improve the ability to respond to public health emergencies and promote health equity in the context of COVID-19. This study aims to analyze the equity of Guangzhou’s basic medical service and identify areas where health resources are relatively scarce. The spatial distribution and patterns of basic medical services were analyzed using kernel density analysis and standard deviation ellipse. The equity was analyzed using the Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve in terms of population and geographical area, respectively. Considering the medical demand and supply sides, the Gaussian two-step floating catchment area method was used to analyze the accessibility to different levels of medical institutions. The kernel density analysis and standard deviation ellipse showed that the spatial distribution of medical and health resources in Guangzhou is unevenly distributed, and high-level hospitals and medical resources are mainly concentrated in the centrum. From the perspective of population, Guangzhou’s medical equity is generally reasonable. The accessibility of medical institutions differs with different levels, and the tertiary medical institutions have the best accessibility, while the unclassified, primary, and secondary medical institutions generally have lower accessibility. The accessibility of districts in Guangzhou varies greatly. Areas in the center are most accessible to basic medical services, while accessibility in outskirt areas has gradually decreased. Conclusion: The quantity of per capita medical and health resources in Guangzhou, as evidenced by basic medical services, is sufficient, but the spatial distribution is unequal. The developed city center enjoys more adequate healthcare resources than the distant suburbs. Primary healthcare should be built, especially in distant suburbs, to strengthen basic medical service equity in Guangzhou.

Suggested Citation

  • Jin Li & Jie Li & Jian Huang, 2022. "Research on the Equity and Optimal Allocation of Basic Medical Services in Guangzhou in the Context of COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-15, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:22:p:14656-:d:966476
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/22/14656/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/22/14656/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pan, Jay & Zhao, Hanqing & Wang, Xiuli & Shi, Xun, 2016. "Assessing spatial access to public and private hospitals in Sichuan, China: The influence of the private sector on the healthcare geography in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 35-45.
    2. Druckman, A. & Jackson, T., 2008. "Measuring resource inequalities: The concepts and methodology for an area-based Gini coefficient," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 242-252, April.
    3. Asante, Augustine Danso & Zwi, Anthony Barry & Ho, Maria Theresa, 2006. "Equity in resource allocation for health: A comparative study of the Ashanti and Northern Regions of Ghana," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(2-3), pages 135-148, October.
    4. Horev, Tuvia & Pesis-Katz, Irena & Mukamel, Dana B., 2004. "Trends in geographic disparities in allocation of health care resources in the US," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 223-232, May.
    5. Xueling Wu & Ruiqi Mao & Xiaojia Guo, 2022. "Equilibrium of Tiered Healthcare Resources during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China: A Case Study of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-17, June.
    6. Jiawei Zhang & Peien Han & Yan Sun & Jingyu Zhao & Li Yang, 2021. "Assessing Spatial Accessibility to Primary Health Care Services in Beijing, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Xiaojia Guo & Jingzhong Li & Yexin Gao & Fang Su & Bing Xue, 2021. "Influence of Major Public Health Emergencies on Family Relationship and Humanistic Geographical Characteristics of China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-15, April.
    8. Miao Du & Yuhua Zhao & Tao Fang & Linyu Fan & Minghua Zhang & Hong Huang & Kun Mei, 2022. "Evaluating the Inequality of Medical Resource Allocation Based on Spatial and Non-Spatial Accessibility: A Case Study of Wenzhou, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-15, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hong Zhu & Jin Li & Zhenjie Yuan & Jie Li, 2023. "Bibliometric Analysis of Spatial Accessibility from 1999–2022," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-17, September.
    2. Dan Zhao & Liu Shao & Jianwei Li & Lina Shen, 2024. "Spatial-Performance Evaluation of Primary Health Care Facilities: Evidence from Xi’an, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-14, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xueling Wu & Ruiqi Mao & Xiaojia Guo, 2022. "Equilibrium of Tiered Healthcare Resources during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China: A Case Study of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-17, June.
    2. Jiawei Zhang & Peien Han & Yan Sun & Jingyu Zhao & Li Yang, 2021. "Assessing Spatial Accessibility to Primary Health Care Services in Beijing, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Lei Zhu & Shuang Zhong & Wei Tu & Jing Zheng & Shenjing He & Junzhe Bao & Cunrui Huang, 2019. "Assessing Spatial Accessibility to Medical Resources at the Community Level in Shenzhen, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-15, January.
    4. Jingya Luan & Yuhong Tian & Chi Yung Jim & Xu Liu & Mengxuan Yan & Lizhu Wu, 2023. "Assessing Spatial Accessibility of Community Hospitals for the Elderly in Beijing, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-19, January.
    5. Hong Zhu & Jin Li & Zhenjie Yuan & Jie Li, 2023. "Bibliometric Analysis of Spatial Accessibility from 1999–2022," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-17, September.
    6. Hilaire Zon & Milena Pavlova & Wim Groot, 2020. "Regional health disparities in Burkina Faso during the period of health care decentralization. Results of a macro‐level analysis," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 939-959, July.
    7. Eric Delattre & Anne-Laure Samson, 2012. "Stratégies de localisation des médecins généralistes français : mécanismes économiques ou hédonistes ?," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 455(1), pages 115-142.
    8. Huotari, Tiina & Antikainen, Harri & Keistinen, Timo & Rusanen, Jarmo, 2017. "Accessibility of tertiary hospitals in Finland: A comparison of administrative and normative catchment areas," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 60-67.
    9. Tao, Zhuolin & Cheng, Yang & Du, Shishuai & Feng, Ling & Wang, Shaoshuai, 2020. "Accessibility to delivery care in Hubei Province, China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    10. Yujie Yang & Weixin Luan & Yunan Xue, 2019. "Sustainability and Environmental Inequality: Effects of Animal Husbandry Pollution in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-16, August.
    11. Liyong Lu & Jay Pan, 2021. "Does hospital competition lead to medical equipment expansion? Evidence on the medical arms race," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 582-596, September.
    12. Overland, Indra & Juraev, Javlon & Vakulchuk, Roman, 2022. "Are renewable energy sources more evenly distributed than fossil fuels?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 379-386.
    13. Xiuli Wang & Barnabas C. Seyler & Ting Chen & Weiyan Jian & Hongqiao Fu & Baofeng Di & Winnie Yip & Jay Pan, 2024. "Disparity in healthcare seeking behaviors between impoverished and non-impoverished populations with implications for healthcare resource optimization," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    14. Lu, Liyong & Pan, Jay, 2019. "The association of hospital competition with inpatient costs of stroke: Evidence from China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 234-245.
    15. Hui-Ching Wu & Ming-Hseng Tseng & Chuan-Chao Lin, 2020. "Assessment on Distributional Fairness of Physical Rehabilitation Resource Allocation: Geographic Accessibility Analysis Integrating Google Rating Mechanism," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-21, October.
    16. Toyokawa, Satoshi & Kobayashi, Yasuki, 2010. "Increasing supply of dentists induces their geographic diffusion in contrast with physicians in Japan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(11), pages 2014-2019, December.
    17. Kan Wang & Jianjun Bai & Xing Dang, 2020. "Spatial Difference and Equity Analysis for Accessibility to Three-Level Medical Services Based on Actual Medical Behavior in Shaanxi, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-20, December.
    18. Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2011. "Conceptualizing urban household energy use: Climbing the "Energy Services Ladder"," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1659-1668, March.
    19. Zhao, Congyu & Jia, Rongwen & Dong, Kangyin, 2023. "Does financial inclusion achieve the dual dividends of narrowing carbon inequality within cities and between cities? Empirical evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    20. Boukary OUEDRAOGO & Sylvie FERRARI, 2012. "Incidence of forest income in reducing poverty and inequalities:\r\nEvidence from forest dependent households in managed forests’ areas in Burkina Faso," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2012-28, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:22:p:14656-:d:966476. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.