Suggestions to ameliorate the inequity in urban/rural allocation of healthcare resources in China

International Journal for Equity in Health

Qiong Xie²  Zhou Yin¹  Yiyi Chen² 

[1] The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, 318 Chao Wang Road, Gon Shu District, Hangzhou 310014, Zhejiang Province, China;The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, 79 Qing Chun Road, Shang Cheng District, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China

关键词: Inequity;    Allocation;    Healthcare resources;    Urban–rural gap;   

Others  :  802495
DOI  :  10.1186/1475-9276-13-34

 received in 2014-02-24, accepted in 2014-04-28,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

The imbalance in the allocation in healthcare resources between urban and rural areas has become a main focus of the recent medical reforms adopted in China. However, systematic analysis has identified wide differences in the allocation of healthcare resources between urban and rural areas, including healthcare expenditures and the number of healthcare facilities, available beds, and personnel. Therefore, the aim of this report was to identify ethical considerations in current governmental policies to rectify existing problems in the distribution of healthcare resources. Our findings indicate that the inequality in the distribution of healthcare resources does not adhere to ethical standards and the policies are flawed because they give rise to differences in the availability of medical care to urban and rural communities. To optimize the allocation of medical healthcare resources, countermeasures are proposed to formulate policies to urge the flow of public healthcare resources to rural areas, strengthen the responsibilities of both governmental and public financial investments, increase the construction of public healthcare facilities in rural areas, promote the quality of healthcare resources, adjust resource allocations to rural public healthcare facilities, and improve resource utilization efficiency by establishing two-way referral mechanisms.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Chen et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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