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The European Journal of Public Health 2001 11(2):160-165; doi:10.1093/eurpub/11.2.160
© 2001 by European Journal of Public Health
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HEALTH POLICY

Social democratic government and spatial distribution of health care facilities: The case of Hospital beds in Germany

MARLIES BENNEMA-BROOS1, PETER P. GROENEWEGEN1 and GERT P. WESTERT2

1Netherlands institute of primary health care–NIVEL, Utrecht, The Netherland
2National Institute of Public Health and the Environment–RIVM, Bilthoven, The Netherlands

Correspondence: Marlies Bennema-Broos, MSc, Netherlands Institute of primary health care NIVEL, PO Box 1568 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands, tel. +31 30 2729682, fax +31 30 2729682, m.bennema{at}nivel.nl

Background: In this paper, the hypothesis that the spatial distribution of hospital beds is more even in countries with socialist or social democratic governments than in countries with conservative or Christian democratic governments was tested. To avoid the confounding influences of historical and institutional differences between countries, we used the Federal Republic of Germany as a case study. The German federal states have their own governments who play an important role in creating structures for the planning of hospital facilities. Methods: The test of the hypothesis was largely quantitative. At the level of federal states the rank correlation was computed between the weighted number of years of left-wing government participation and the coefficient of variation In the number of hospital beds per 1000 inhabitants. In addition to this, the hospital plans of two federal states were studied. Results: The hypothesis was supported by the data, showing a positive association between the number of years of left-wing government participation and regional variation in the number of hospital beds. A comparison of the hospital plans of two contrasting federal states showed less government interference in hospital planning in the state with a tradition of right-wing government Conclusion: There seems to be a relation between left-wing government participation in West German states and a more equal distribution of the number of hospital beds per 1,000 inhabitants.

Keywords: Germany, hospital beds, policits, regional disparities


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