title: Spatial illustration of health-care workforce accessibility index in China: How far has our 2009 health-care reform brought us?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of China's health-care reform from 2009 to 2011 by examining China's annual health-care workforce statistics of 2008 and 2011.
  
  
  METHODS
  The design of the study was a secondary data analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  The main outcome measure used was the Primary Health Care Worker Accessibility Index (PHCWA).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The statistics illustrated the impact health-care reform had on the provision of primary health care in rural areas. The results showed that the health-care reform of 2009 generally improved access to the primary health-care workforce in all 28 areas (range of increase: 13.18-324.0%). However, an increasing disparity in regional health care based on the increase of the standard deviations of PHCWA (range of increase: 36.44-77.10%) may be an issue that policy-makers and analysts will have to face.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Concerted policy efforts from both the provincial and central governments are needed to narrow the gaps. Regional development should not only focus on the economic aspect, but also account for the fact that the adequate provision of primary health care is part of the infrastructure that makes development possible and sustainable.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resource Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.|Key Laboratory of Surveillance and Early Warning on Infectious Disease, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China.|CUHK Jockey Club Institute of Ageing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ho Ting
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ying Qi
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Work, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Marcus Yu Lung
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Si
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D016208:Databases, Factual; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D006280:Health Workforce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D011320:Primary Health Care
keywords: China; Chinese health-care reform; accessibility; health-care workforce; primary health care