We will examine the accessibility of services for different patient groups using social welfare and health care register data and spatial information. We will build a national geocoded database of social welfare and health care sector services, which will contain the exact location data of service units and information about their fields, provided services, and available resources.
Database of social and health care services will be tested in North Karelia and Kainuu
In the initial phase, a geographic information system (GIS) will be used to analyse how well the geocoded database of social welfare and health care services in the sample regions, or the regions of North Karelia and Kainuu
- covers the services in question
- what the provision and accessibility of services are like in the regions under scrutiny and in proportion to the target population using them
- where potential areas with a high or low volume of services, or areas heavily dependent on either public or private services, are located
- where the services are found in terms of population age structure and/or socioeconomic variables and the need for services derived from them, and how the situation will change if the provision of services changes.
Based on the experiences gathered, the analysis will be extended nationwide.
Effects of changes on services
We will assess the changes in the structure of specialised medical care and emergency care services resulting from reforms that have already been implemented and those that are under way. We will evaluate the current and future impacts of these changes and the rest of the legislation on the
- availability
- accessibility
- equality, and
- costs of the services.
Relying on register data, interviews and other available information, we will compare the status of procedures, tests and specialists fields, in particular those specifically referred to in the legislation, before and after the reforms.