Geographical accessibility of rural populations to basic health services: a case study in Teruel province (Spain)

Abstract

This article presents the preliminary results of a research about the geographical accessibility to medical services in rural areas. Theorically grounded and adapted on universal health systems as Spanish, the study –which has required a considerable amount of secondary desagregated data– has been carried out in order to provide evidences of spatial accessibility costs in some areas of the Teruel province. The results confirm the validity of this hypothesis, and so the infringement of the equal access principle recognized in most of the Health Public Systems, for a significant part or the territory but only for a small amount of the total population.