Contrasting Clustering in Health Care Provision in Romania: Spatial and Aspatial Limitations

Education and health care provision in the Romanian Danube Valley: Territorial disparities

“…In this study, the main limit, also encountered in other studies focused on health care territorial features (e.g., Dumitrache et al., ), consists in the difficulties of building the statistical database: access to statistical data was restricted to the TEMPO‐Online time‐series published by the National Institute of Statistics; other statistical information from different counties or local institutions was not available. Moreover, the impossibility of computing the same indexes for the period when restructuring and privatisation of education and health care provision began has deprived us of an answer to the questions raised by a comparative study: have these processes (restructuring and privatization) only positive effects on education and health care provision or are their impacts more complex and difficult to assess at national scale and therefore is research at a local level preferred?…”

“…This new context represented a very fruitful background for territorial research and for other fields of scientific interest. Even if the Romanian geographical literature has recently been enriched by numerous titles on education and health care systems (Dumitrache et al., ; Ianoş, ; Mocanu et al., ; Stanef, ; Zamfir et al., ), the relationship between provision and responsivity in terms of education and health care represents a research topic that has yet to be analysed deeply at regional and local levels.…”

An Analysis of the Proximity Based Polarisation of the Hospital Network of Moldavia’s Counties

“…(Dumitrache et al, 2008) While it appears that the issues that hindered the development of the medical system of Romania in the past reiterate, new unfavourable factors like the discordance between the public and the private medical sectors and the improper regulation and coordination of the subordinate institutions emerge. (Dumitrache et al, 2016;Farcasanu, 2010) One of the most significant problems faced by the health care system of Romania is represented by underfunding. Romania ranks among the last EU countries in terms of health expenditure, in 2014 spending only 5.4% of its GDP on the health system.…”

“…While studies about the economic factors (Vlădescu et al, 2016;Suciu et al, 2012) and the cultural and social factors (Farcasanu, 2010;Jankauskiene et al, 2011;Karanikolos et al, 2011) that may be held accountable for the current underperformance status of Romania's medical system have been conducted over the years, the territorial dimension of this system and its role in shaping the reality have been taken into account only recently. (Ciutan et al, 2009;Dragomirișteanu, 2010;Eva et al, 2015;Dumitrache et al, 2016) An akin study that focuses on the territorial disparities between the spatial distribution of the medical resources and the population that may need them, emphasising the unevenly distributed medical units and medical personnel, the elderly population and the distribution of the economic vulnerable population, points out that Romania presents a "divided landscape of care". (Dumitrache et al, 2016) The applications that consider the territorial dimension of the health care system as an important factor in its analysis tend to be focused on the entire territory of Romania, providing only an overview of the situation.…”

“…(Ciutan et al, 2009;Dragomirișteanu, 2010;Eva et al, 2015;Dumitrache et al, 2016) An akin study that focuses on the territorial disparities between the spatial distribution of the medical resources and the population that may need them, emphasising the unevenly distributed medical units and medical personnel, the elderly population and the distribution of the economic vulnerable population, points out that Romania presents a "divided landscape of care". (Dumitrache et al, 2016) The applications that consider the territorial dimension of the health care system as an important factor in its analysis tend to be focused on the entire territory of Romania, providing only an overview of the situation. The variability of the local conditions that influence the medical system and their dynamics call for a regional and local scale approach.…”