Status and equity of health human resources allocation in township health centers in northern Jiangsu province

ObjectiveTo analyze the current situation and equity of human resource(HR) allocation in township health centers(THCs) in the north of Jiangsu province and to provide evidences for optimizing rural health HR allocation.MethodsA self-administered questionnaire survey on health HR was conducted among THCs in 5 municipalities in northern Jiangsu province.Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient were used to analyze the fairness of the HR allocation.ResultsIn 2012,there were 47 886 workers in the THCs in the regions surveyed,of them 36 855 were health technical personnel(77.0%).The average number of health workers in the THCs per 1 000 inhabitants was 1.63,which was higher than that of national average(1.37).The male to female ratio of the health workers was 0.65:1.Of all the health workers,only 12.12% were under the age of 25 years and the proportions of the workers with the education of undergraduate and postgraduate were were 13.47% and 0.33%,respectively.There were significant regional differences in fundamental constituent indicators of health HR.The health HR allocation in the THCs showed a sound equity(Gini coefficientG=0.33),while the allocation of public health practitioners and dentists were seriously inequitable(G_p=0.53 and G_d=0.69).ConclusionGovernmental planning and development for grassroots health HR allocation should be improved to meet the requirements of health service among rural residents.