Document Type : Research Article
Authors
1
Addiction Research Centre, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Mashhad, Iran. Mashhad Medical Council, Mashhad, Iran
2
Mashhad Municipality, Mashhad, Iran
3
Mashhad Medical Council, Mashhad, Iran
4
Addiction Research Centre, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Mashhad, Iran
Abstract
Background: To establish an integrated health system and balanced urban system in a city, controlling the geographical distribution of medical offices is one of the necessities. The objective of this study was to evaluate the frequency and distribution of offices of general physicians and specialists in the city of Mashhad.
Methods: In this this study, distribution of physicians' offices in the municipality zones of Mashhad was evaluated. Geographical location of physicians' offices and demographic characteristics of physicians including gender, general practitioner or specialist, and their specialty were extracted from the databank of Mashhad Medical Council (MMC). The data included physicians registered to the databank up to the beginning of October 2013.
Results: In Mashhad, 2,915 physicians (i.e. 45% of registered physicians in MMC) had instituted their private offices. Of these, 1,512 physicians (51.9%) were general practitioners and 1,403 physicians (48.1%) were specialists or subspecialists. Among specialists and subspecialists, gynecologists (15.3%), pediatrics (11.8%) and internists (11.0%) were the most frequent and oncologists (0.2%), occupational medicine specialists (0.2%) and forensics specialists (0.1%) were the lowest in number. Considering the zoning of Mashhad (13 municipality zone), the highest number of private clinics was located in zone#1 (34.9%) and zone#8 (15.6%) and the lowest number was located in zone#12 (0.2 %) and the Samen zone (0.9%) which showed a significant difference among them (P<0.001). Data analysis showed the highest concentration of private clinics in two relatively higher-income zones of Mashhad, particularly around the two main public hospitals (Imam Reza and Ghaem).
Conclusion: Up to 8 years ago, vice chancellery for treatment affairs of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences has been controlling the location of private medical offices and has been limiting the licensing in highly crowded zones. Restoring the previous process in collaboration with the MMC and Municipality of Mashhad can help to equilibrate the medical office aggregation, reduce traffic in highly crowded zones and improve citizens' access to physicians.
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