Equity in distribution of hospital beds in Tehran province

Health equity is “the availability of health services and people's access to them, using health services based on need, paying for health services based on financial ability and having an acceptable level of health”. Equitable distribution of hospital beds plays a significant role in achieving universal health coverage and improving people's health. This study aimed to measure the equity in the geographical distribution of hospital beds in Tehran province, Iran.

Data for this descriptive and cross-sectional study was collected from the Ministry of Health and the Iranian Statistics Center. All hospitals in Tehran province were included in this study in 2016. Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient were used to calculate the equity of hospital beds distribution using the Excel software.

Tehran province population was 13,267,637 at the study commence. There were 158 hospitals with 25,866 beds in Tehran province in 2016 (1.2 hospital per 100,000 people and 1.9 hospital beds per 1000 people). Tehran, Varamin and Firoozkooh cities had the highest hospital beds per population. Tehran, the capital, had 90% of the total Tehran province hospitals and 95% of the hospital beds. The Gini coefficient for hospital bed distribution among Tehran cities was 0.299.

The distribution of hospital beds in Tehran Province was relatively fair. Equitable allocation of hospital beds particularly in less developed cities is necessary for achieving health equity in access to health resources.