The accessibility assessment of medical facilities based on the hierarchical medical system: A case study of Shenzhen, China

Due to the hierarchical medical system currently being promoted in China, the reasonable allocation of medical resources and equal medical services have become important research topics for urban planning. However, few studies have been conducted on the allocation of medical resources accounting for space accessibility based on the hierarchy of medical facilities and more refined population spatial units. This research assigned population into general and urban villages residential buildings (from building census data) to further refine the population data. By examining Shenzhen through a two-step 2SFCA, the present research evaluates the accessibility of community and regional medical facilities and spatial configuration at various referral rates by implementing GIS network analysis. The main findings of the present scrutiny are: 1) The overall development of medical facilities in Shenzhen is presently at the back of the first-tier cities in China, and there is a discrepancy in the accessibility of medical facilities between administrative districts; 2) Under the current conditions in Shenzhen, the best spatial configuration can be achieved only when the referral rate would be 70%-80%, indicating that primary medical resources are now weak in Shenzhen. In the future construction of medical facilities, there is a high requirement to classify and rank communities to formulate policies. This is essential for increasing the capacity of medical services in communities with poor medical resources. Additionally, the capacity of community health service centers should be enhanced and the treatment of minor diseases in senior hospitals should be evacuated to appropriately control the referral rate. This leads to attaining a balanced distribution and efficient exploitation of medical resources.