The allocation and equity of personnel and facilities of radiotherapy in the county hospitals of Chinese mainland in 2019 / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To examine the status of personnel and facilities of radiotherapy in county hospital of Chinese mainland and to evaluate the equity of allocation.Methods:All the county level radiotherapy units were chosen for study, and the data were extracted from the 9 th national survey on radiation oncology departments conducted by Chinese Society of Radiation Oncology of Chinese Medical Association from April 10, 2019 to September 20, 2019. Descriptive statistics and statistical analysis were performed. For the further analysis on the equity, the Gini coefficient, Theil index and agglomeration degree were calculated. Results:The number of county level radiotherapy units was 191 in the eastern region, 172 in the central region and only 59 in the western region, and there was no radiotherapy unit in the county area of some provinces in the western region. For the counties with larger population (population over 500 thousand) in Chinese mainland, 23.4% of the counties in the western region had radiotherapy units, lower compared to the eastern region (48.9%) and central region (41.8%). The Gini coefficients of all kinds of radiotherapy health resources according to population allocation were in alert states, and in highly unfair states according to geographical allocation. The intra-regional gap in radiotherapy resource allocation was larger than the inter-regional gap, and the intra-regional gap mainly came from the western region. HRADi,HRADi/ PADi in the eastern and central regions were all greater than 1, while those in the western region were all less than 1. Conclusions:The overall configuration of county level radiotherapy units in Chinese mainland is insufficient, and there is a regional difference. The fairness of geographical allocation of radiotherapy resources is generally poor. Radiotherapy resources should be scientifically configured to improve the fairness of radiotherapy resource distribution.