Essay On Accessibility To Health Care

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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
The provision of health care services/facilities to public now becomes a severe problem in developing countries. The accessibility to these health care facilities is the key parameter in establishing healthier communities. The degree of accessibility of health care institutions is one of the most significant indicators for measuring the efficiency of the health care system (Gatrell and Elliott 2009).
The public’s access to health care institution could be seriously restricted by distance (Black and al 2004). Longer distances may affect especially the access of the people who are physically impaired and elderly person for health care. In general, the longer the distance to health care facilities higher the risk of fatalities (Jones et al 1998; Hare and Barcus 2007), although this is disputed by some studies (Drummer and Parker 2004).
The study of accessibility to health care has long been of interest to medical geographers and other social scientists (Quah 1977; Joseph and Phillips 1984). Such …show more content…

Gulliford et al (2002) contend that “the availability of services, and barriers to access, have to be considered in the context of differing perspectives, health needs and material settings of diverse groups in society”. Luo and Wang (2003) and Guagliardo (2004) distinguished between potential accessibility (which refers strictly to physical accessibility or to the number of people residing within a certain range who could potentially use the services of these health care facilities should they face no barrier) and revealed accessibility (or actual utilization of health care facilities, which takes into account the barriers mentioned

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