Researchers are interested in understanding the medication accessing preferences of patients. Researchers conducted this study to determine whether genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics in England are located conveniently for potential users and to assess whether there are any regional variations in the accessibility.
Researchers created a surface model in ArcGIS to estimate driving times to the nearest GUM clinic and identify the population’s proportion living more than a half-hour drive from their nearest clinic.
Overall, 3.0% of the population live further than a half-hour from their nearest clinic. However, this average figure disguises considerable regional variation. While access in London and the South East was excellent, with less than one percent of the population living more than a half-hour from the nearest clinic, in the South West and the East of England, these percentages rose to 7.7% and 9.2%, respectively.
The study concluded that it is essential for the clinician to consider the physical barriers to clinic access in some England regions. As the inability or unwillingness to undertake a long journey to a GUM clinic may increase the workload in other clinical settings as well.
Reference: https://srh.bmj.com/content/37/3/152
