The Study On Equity And Efficiency Of Health Resources Allocation In Jiangsu Province

ObjectiveEquity and efficiency of health resources allocation are the crux of the maters, whichmust be solved for the sustainable development of health service. Since the healthresources that can be utilized in every country and district are limited and rare, allocationof health resources reasonably and equitably has become the first important question of thehealth reformation in each country. To reveal the actuality of the equity and efficiency ofhealth resources allocation, this study chose Jiangsu Province as the object of the researchproject, descriptive the basic situation of the health resource allocation and made acomprehensive evaluation on the efficiency and equity of the health resources allocation inJiangsu Province. The purpose is to provide references to optimize the allocation of healthresource, to improve the utilization of health resource and to make development plan ofregional health.MethodsExcel 2007, SPSS13.0 and SAS8.2 were applied in this study. Descriptive analysis, RSR,data envelopment analysis (DEA), Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient were used in theprocess of data analysis.Results(1)The per GDP, per capita annual disposable income of urban households and per capitaannual net income of rural households reached 24490.82, 12319and 5276 RMBrespectively at the end of 2005 in Jiangsu Province; the expectation of life was 73.9 yearsold in 2000, which was higher than the national average level of 71.4 years old: (2) Theannual average growth rates of medical personnel, medical technical personnel and doctorwere 2.17%, 2.09% and 1.75% respectively from 1990 to 2005, and the health resources inper 1000 population were higher than the average level of the whole country at the end of2005, except medical technical personnel; the average growth rate of the funds of healthcare to per person reached to 14.33%, and the funds of health care to per person reached56.4RMB, but the ratio of the health care funds to local finance expenditure have beendeclined yearly. Through it has being higher than the national average level all along, thedifference has been decreasing. (3) The utilization rate of the health resources has beendecreasing yearly, while the medical expenditure on health per person increasing: From1990 to 2005, the indexes of the total number of patients treated, the total number ofoutpatients, the number of patients treated by doctors in comprehensive hospitals perdoctor, the utilization rate of beds, the number of days per bed in use in a year and theturnover of beds all first dropped down until 2001 (the lowest), then ascended increasingly.But the medical expenditures of per outpatient and inpatient were increasing yearly, andthe average growth rates were 3.36% and 7.55%. (4) The allocation efficiency of healthresources also first decreased, and then went up: From 1990 to 2005, the health scaleincreased, while there was a decrease in the output scale before 2001 and an increase after2001; The comprehensive health strength and the efficiency of allocation were all betteronly in 2004 and 2005 depending on the values of U and WRSR. (5) The health resources allocation in every city was unbalanceable: the efficiency of Nanjing, Wuxi, Suzhou,Yancheng, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang and Suqian were higher efficiency comparatively, andothers were inefficiency, for example, the city of Taizhou was the lowest of 76%. (6) Thehealth personnel and bed resources were reasonable equity according to the distribution ofpopulation, but the Gini coefficients of health technical personnel and health bedsdetermined by the population distribution in comprehensive hospitals were 0.4061,higher than in Medical institutions.Conclusions(1) The total of the health resources in Jiangsu Province was plentiful, and the utilizationrate of the health resources has been decreasing in the latest three years, which tended tothe optimum state of health resource allocation. But there were discrepancies in theefficiency of health resource allocation among cities in Jiangsu Province. (2) The economicsupport from each government has been weakening, but the medical expenditure on healthper person increasing. (3) The health personnel and bed resources were reasonable equityaccording to the distribution of population, but the equity of economic supports from eachgovernment was not optimistic, exceeding the warning line. (4)The efficiency of healthresource allocation could be evaluated rationally by applying RSR and the value of Usynthetically.