Travel for access to health care services. User habits and barriers in Conakry and Douala
Sub-Saharan African cities are believed to be better served than villages with regard to access to health care. Yet differences at the intra-urban level have seldom been analyzed. Fundamental questions remain as to the extent to which, in a context of urban poverty, access by Africans to health care is affected both by factors intrinsic to the health sector itself as well as by the spatial distribution of health care providers and accessibility conditions. The aim of this paper is to analyze accessibility to health care services. Empirical evidence from two household travel surveys and interviews carried out in 2003 in Conakry and Douala suggests that accessibility barriers reinforce the negative effects of deficiencies specific to the health care sector. This situation is even more problematic in the case of peripheral areas, with their limited access to public transport and to the services and infrastructures characteristic of larger urban communities.