Accessibility to Maternity wards in Rural Northern Sweden : A Network Analysis of Travel Distances in Västerbotten County

Sammanfattning

Periodically, the maternity ward at Lycksele Hospital is closed, which creates changed conditions for pregnant women living in rural areas of Västerbotten county. The county is the second largest in Sweden and with a varied range of healthcare services between coastal, inland and mountain areas, the distances between the population and healthcare can be long. This is the fundamental reason for the investigation for this work. The aim is to investigate how long the actual distances are in the county between women of childbearing age and the nearest available maternity ward. This in relation to the scenarios of Lycksele maternity ward being open and closed, as well as to the area divisions of coast, inland and mountain that exist in the county. The investigation was carried out through a network analysis in the program ArcGIS Pro, which is based on service areas, women of childbearing age and based on the two scenarios (Lycksele maternity ward open and closed). The result of this work was that the inland and mountain areas will be hardest hit by the closure, distances will increase in the closure scenario and an increased proportion of women will need to travel over 100 km to reach a maternity ward. In connection with the closure, there will be geographical inequality and a challenge to being able to receive equal healthcare in the county, which is the conclusion of this work.