Foley, Ronan (2006) Health, Place and Hanly: modelling accessibility to hospitals in Ireland. Irish Geography, 39 (1). pp. 52-68. ISSN 0075-0778
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Abstract
The Irish Government is currently engaged in considerations about a proposed
reorganisation of acute hospital services. The proposals in the 'Hanly' Report
recommend the creation of new classifications of Major, General and Local
Hospitals. This paper looked at how these proposals might affect geographical
accessibility to Irish acute hospitals and modelled it within a GIS framework.
Spatial data in the form of hospital location and size, road network and demographic
distribution of over 65 's were drawn together within the GIS. A weighted
accessibility formula was applied to produce a measure of accessibility
called a Spatial Accessibility Measure based on travel time, hospital size and
population-weighting. This measures was then applied to produce three scenarios
modelled on; a) the existing configuration of services, b) a partial roll-out
and c) a full roll-out of the proposed changes in the 'Hanly' Report. The scenarios
identified those parts of the country, which were potentially likely to
have increased/decreased accessibility to acute hospital services based on the
different scenarios. Residents in the central and western parts of the country
were shown to be most vulnerable, while the impacts of a full roll-out of Hanly
suggests additional potential impacts on some suburban hospitals in the Greater
Dublin area. The work provides a valuable and previously underdeveloped set
of policy-informed spatial outcomes which can be adjusted if or when more
beds are introduced into the Irish health care system in the next five to ten years.
Item Type: | Article |
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Keywords: | healthcare; accessibility; service planning; GIS; policy; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography |
Item ID: | 8797 |
Depositing User: | Dr. Ronan Foley |
Date Deposited: | 12 Sep 2017 09:09 |
Journal or Publication Title: | Irish Geography |
Publisher: | Geographical Society of Ireland |
Refereed: | Yes |
Related URLs: | |
URI: | https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/8797 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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