Investigating Access Status to Healthcare Centers with the Spatial Justice Approach (A Case Study: District 7 of Tehran)

A society will be sustainable when the basic needs of all its citizens are met. On the other hand, the increasing population of urban areas has increased the demand for public services, especially health services. Today, the level and extent of resident's access to services are calculated on the basis of spatial justice. This study aimed to analyze the extent of realization of spatial justice in access to health centers in Tehran 7th district based on the need criterion.
The present applied study was located in the 7th district of Tehran. In order to measure the pattern of treatment centers distribution, the nearest neighboring distance method as well as the need criterion (age groups that are prone to use of health services, unemployment rate and population density) were used to calculate access to services. This study was conducted using Arc Gis 10.2.2 software.
The results showed that the amount of access to health care services is quite different in terms of the distance between the building blocks and the covered population. Furthermore, only 9 % of the population is located within the standard distance from the hospitals and 25 % within the standard distance from the clinics. The ratio of the nearest neighborhood average was 0.95, 1.15, and 1.34, respectively, in the spatial distribution pattern of hospitals, clinics and pharmacies. It showed that hospitals and clinics have random pattern and pharmacies have scattered pattern. However, regarding the distribution of pharmacies that seems to be more appropriate, the results showed that when in the spatial justice the need criterion is required to intervene, only 13 % of the total population has full access and 39 % do not have access to pharmacies.
Based on the results of this study, the population of the studied district could have more equitable access to health care services through establishing health care centers as well as licensing for the establishment of pharmacies in no access and less access areas, respectively.