Assessment of Need and Access to Physician and Hospital Beds: A Cross Sectional Province Based Study in Iran

Patients and Methods: This was a descriptive and analytical study, which investigated inequality in distribution of physicians and hospital beds among provinces of Iran between 2001 and 2011. Inequality measures (including Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient, Concentration index and Robin Hood index) were used to evaluate the level of inequality in distribution of physicians and hospital beds. The number of hospitalized patients was also considered as health need index. Data about the number of physicians, hospital beds and number of hospitalized patients were obtained from the Iranian Statistical Center and Ministry of Health. The data analysis was performed by STATA V.12 and Excel Software. Results: The Gini coefficient for physicians based on population level and health need index in 2001 (2011) were 0.19 (0.16) and 0.48 (0.47), respectively. Moreover, the Gini coefficient for hospital beds based on population level and health need index in 2001 (2011) were 0.16 (0.13) and 0.38 (0.37), respectively. The concentration and Robin Hood indexes for physicians were -0.11 and 14% in 2001, while they were -0.13 and 11% in 2011, respectively. In addition, the concentration and Robin Hood indexes for hospital beds in 2001 were -0.11 and 7 %, while were -0.10 and 5% in 2011, respectively. Conclusions: Although the total number of physicians and hospital beds increased from 2001 to 2011, but did not necessarily lead to more equal geographical distribution of physicians and hospital beds. Moreover, our study implied that the health resources in Iran have been distributed according to the population level.