As countries progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC), there is a need for geographic information regarding the spatial distribution of available health services in relation to population health needs. The geographic location of health services has a direct impact on health outcomes within countries, by affecting how quickly patients can seek care when faced with illness and injuries.
Measuring the availability of and the physical accessibility to health services contributes to understanding the performance of health systems which facilitates the development of evidence based health policies.
WHO-CHOICE supports the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyse physical accessibility to health services, linking the results to national planning and costing processes, and policy discussions on how to optimise investments in the health system and addressing inequities in service access.
