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Geographical Accessibility of Community Health Assist Scheme General Practitioners for the Elderly Population in Singapore: A Case Study on the Elderly Living in Housing Development Board Flats

Author

Listed:
  • Ong Ming Lee Deborah

    (Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore)

  • Marcus Yu Lung Chiu

    (Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China)

  • Kai Cao

    (Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore)

Abstract

Accessible primary healthcare is important to national healthcare in general and for older persons in particular, in societies where the population is ageing rapidly, as in Singapore. However, although much policy and research efforts have been put into this area, we hardly find any spatial perspective to assess the accessibility of these primary healthcare services. This paper analyzes the geographical accessibility of one major healthcare service in Singapore, namely, General Practitioners (GPs) services under the Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) for older persons. A Python script was developed to filter the website data of the Housing Development Board (HDB) of Singapore. The data derived was comprehensively analyzed by an Enhanced 2-Step Floating Catchment Area (E2SFCA) method based on a Gaussian distance-decay function and the GIS technique. This enabled the identification of areas with relatively weak geographical accessibility of CHAS-GPs. The findings are discussed along with suggestions for health practitioners, service planners and policy makers. Despite its initial nature, this study has demonstrated the value of innovative approaches in data collection and processing for the elderly-related studies, and contributed to the field of healthcare services optimization and possibly to other human services.

Suggested Citation

  • Ong Ming Lee Deborah & Marcus Yu Lung Chiu & Kai Cao, 2018. "Geographical Accessibility of Community Health Assist Scheme General Practitioners for the Elderly Population in Singapore: A Case Study on the Elderly Living in Housing Development Board Flats," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-15, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:9:p:1988-:d:169344
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    Cited by:

    1. Yue Liu & Yuwei Su & Xiaoyu Li, 2022. "Analyzing the Spatial Equity of Walking-Based Chronic Disease Pharmacies: A Case Study in Wuhan, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Chuan De Foo & Shilpa Surendran & Geronimo Jimenez & John Pastor Ansah & David Bruce Matchar & Gerald Choon Huat Koh, 2021. "Primary Care Networks and Starfield’s 4Cs: A Case for Enhanced Chronic Disease Management," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-13, March.

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