ABSTRACT
There are wide disparities in the availability of welfare facilities including those for health at the international, national and regional levels. In terms of spatial distribution, such disparities often increase over time in both developed and developing countries. It has been said that health care provision is simply a manifestation of society’s organization and distribution of scarce resources in space. In the Third World in particular, this distribution frequently leads to inequalities and lack of social justice, and produces effects which appear out of context and are often treated as individualistic health problems rather than measures of societal dysfunction. The problems encountered in providing health care in developing countries include shortage of trained personnel, inadequate preventive and curative care for large populations, shortages of drugs and exorbitant prices. These are in addition to the physical, socioeconomic and cultural constraints encountered in the utilization of health care resources. The maldistribution of health care resources is one of the most serious problems facing all developing countries, and appears to affect especially those with a colonial past.
