Erreichbarkeit von Hausärzten in Niedersachsen und Bremen

To be able to assess where in Lower Saxony and Bremen at present the accessibility of general practitioners is already problematic and where the future abanonment of medical practices may worsen the health care situation, the accessibility of general practitioners was analyzed. The analysis has been performed with the help of a small-scale GIS-accessibility analysis and focuses on the three means of transport "car", "public transport" and "foot". As such, based on a 250m x 250m grid, the study creates a data basis for health-care planners that allows considering the intra-regional accessibility of general practitioners in addition to the common physician per inhabitant ratio per health-care planning unit. The data show: At present general practitioners are quite good accessible by car. However, in great parts of the rural areas the accessibility of general practitioners by public transport or foot is inadequate. That is, especially less mobile people are affected by a bad accessibility of general practitioners. As such, the study reveals, that subject to individual mobility capabilities different (accessibility-) realities do exist. Therefore, the location of the place of residence within a health-care planning area is the determining factor for the individual situation. As such, the analysis shows that the common physician per inhabitant ratio per health-care planning unit is not very meaningful if one wants to assess the situation as it presents itself for the people. The reason is that it masks decisive personal and place-based determinants for intraregional supply deficits.