Abstract
Diabetes mellitus is not one of the new diseases, but recently it is arousing the attention of the general public. It is a chronic heterogeneous disease associated with increased level of the blood sugar due to absolute or relative deficiency of insulin in the body.
The number of diabetics in the Czech Republic has exceeded 800 thousand people and this number has been rising every year. Late detection of disease or neglecting of the treatment can lead to acute or chronic complications.
These complications significantly make the life of all patients more dificult and it can results for example in lower limb amputations, kidney failure or in the worst case even in the patient's death. Prevention and the adherence of the proper medical procedure is thus a primary objective in the fight against diabetes.
Early detection of the disease can prevent the formation or further development of associated complications and thereby enable diabetics, despite the illness, the longer life with higher quality. The availability of quality medical care is so crucial in the case of diabetes.
Government Decree no. 307/2012 Sb. of 29. 8. 2012 gives effect to the standards for local and time availability of health care services for outpatient and inpatient care. Diabetes is among the second group of disciplines of outpatient care, the availability of the devices for the citizens should be guaranteed by government regulations until 45 minutes.
This paper, using Network Analyst extension of ArcGIS software, aims to analyze current availability of individual devices for diabetics, not only in terms of the simple time accessibility. Government regulation is not taking into consideration for example the personnel capacities or the age structure of physicians, but these factors are key determinants of accessibility to health care with regard to future geodemographic development of Czech population.