Equity in geographical distribution of hospital beds in Khuzestan Province

Equity in the health system is “peoplechr('39')s access to the health services according to their needs, paying for healthcare based on the financial ability, and having an acceptable level of health”. Equitable distribution of hospital beds plays an important role in achieving the goal of universal health coverage. The purpose of this study was to evaluate equity in the geographical distribution of hospital beds in Khuzestan Province.

Data from the Ministry of Health and the statistics center of Iran were used for this descriptive and cross-sectional study. Hospitals of Khuzestan Province in 2016 formed the research community. The equity in the distribution of hospital beds has been measured using the Lorenz curve and the Gini coefficient. Excel software was applied for data analysis.

Khuzestan Province had a population of 4,710,509 and 54 hospitals with 7,014 active hospital beds in 2016. There were 1.1 hospitals per hundred thousand population and 1.5 hospital beds per thousand population in the province. The cities of Ahwaz, Karun, and Masjed Soleiman had the most hospital beds per people. About 30% of hospitals and 51% of hospital beds were in Ahvaz. The Gini coefficient of distribution of hospital beds in the cities of Khuzestan was 0.33.

The distribution of hospital beds in Khuzestan province using the Gini index was relatively fair. Policymakers and senior health managers should take measure to improve equity in the access of people to hospital beds.