Equal access to primary care : a reference for spatial allocation

We study the regional distribution of primary care physicians in Germany to learn about the extent and possible reasons of geographic maldistribution. For this aim, we apply a greedy capacitated algorithm on very fine spatial data. We compare this reference allocation of primary care physicians to the status quo. Our results suggest that Germany has a shortage of primary care physicians of 6% which is particularly evident in rural areas. Some municipality characteristics like purchasing power and number of schools can explain parts of the difference in the number of physicians between cities and rural areas. Large parts, however, remain unexplained.