Planning universal accessibility to public health care in sub-Saharan Africa.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
; 117(50): 31760-31769, 2020 12 15.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33257557
Achieving universal health care coverage-a key target of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 3-requires accessibility to health care services for all. Currently, in sub-Saharan Africa, at least one-sixth of the population lives more than 2 h away from a public hospital, and one in eight people is no less than 1 h away from the nearest health center. We combine high-resolution data on the location of different typologies of public health care facilities [J. Maina et al., Sci. Data 6, 134 (2019)] with population distribution maps and terrain-specific accessibility algorithms to develop a multiobjective geographic information system framework for assessing the optimal allocation of new health care facilities and assessing hospitals expansion requirements. The proposed methodology ensures universal accessibility to public health care services within prespecified travel times while guaranteeing sufficient available hospital beds. Our analysis suggests that to meet commonly accepted universal health care accessibility targets, sub-Saharan African countries will need to build â¼6,200 new facilities by 2030. We also estimate that about 2.5 million new hospital beds need to be allocated between new facilities and â¼1,100 existing structures that require expansion or densification. Optimized location, type, and capacity of each facility can be explored in an interactive dashboard. Our methodology and the results of our analysis can inform local policy makers in their assessment and prioritization of health care infrastructure. This is particularly relevant to tackle health care accessibility inequality, which is not only prominent within and between countries of sub-Saharan Africa but also, relative to the level of service provided by health care facilities.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Administración en Salud Pública
/
Desarrollo Sostenible
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Atención de Salud Universal
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Planificación en Salud
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Hospitales Públicos
Límite:
Humans
País/Región como asunto:
Africa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
Año:
2020
Tipo del documento:
Article