A geospatial analysis of two-hour surgical access to district hospitals in South Africa

Background: In a robust health care system, at least 80% of a country’s population should be able to access a district hospital that provides surgical care within 2 hours. The objective was to identify the proportion of the population living within 2 hours of a district hospital with surgical capacity in South Africa. Methods: All government hospitals in the country were identified. Surgical district hospitals were defined as district hospitals with a surgical provider, a functional operating theatre, and the provision of at least one caesarean section annually. The proportion of the population within two-hour access was estimated using service area methods. Results: Ninety-eight percent of the population had two-hour access to any government hospital in South Africa. One hundred and thirty-eight of 240 (58%) district hospitals had surgical capacity and 86% of the population had two-hour access to these facilities. Conclusion: Improving equitable surgical access is urgently needed in sub-Saharan Africa. This study demonstrated that in South Africa, just over half of district hospitals had surgical capacity but more than 80% of the population had two-hour access to these facilities. Strengthening district hospital surgical capacity is an international mandate and needed to improve access.

Description

CITATION: Chu, K. M., et al. 2020. A geospatial analysis of two-hour surgical access to district hospitals in South Africa. BMC Health Services Research, 20:744, doi:10.1186/s12913-020-05637-0.
The original publication is available at https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com

Keywords

Surgery, Global -- South Africa, Health services accessibility -- South Africa, Surgery -- South Africa, Public hospitals -- South Africa, Geospatial data -- Analysis

Citation

Chu, K. M., et al. 2020. A geospatial analysis of two-hour surgical access to district hospitals in South Africa. BMC Health Services Research, 20:744, doi:10.1186/s12913-020-05637-0

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/108800

Collections

Research Articles (Centre for Global Surgery)

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