Supply of care and neighborhood types in Libreville

Libreville, capital of the Gabonese Republic takes, is part of the worldwide urban planning movement that has recently reached the emerging nations. In this context of increasing urbanization, the health coverage of the population is an important issue. We conducted a field study of the health facilities of all sectors to collect geographical coordinates to map them in 2014. Overall, we mapped 447 medical facilities. Then, in March 2014 we selected 300 households for an investigation in 3 districts (Nkembo, Nzeng Ayong, and Melen) of Libreville. The objective of the investigation was to collect the households' opinions about the geographical accessibility of these facilities. The results enabled us to map these facilities and showed a gradient. Assessment of the distance between these facilities according to district showed that the central district of Nkembo is closer to them than were the pericentral and peripheral neighborhoods. These results tend to show spatial disparities in the supply of health care. At the same time, the assessment of the geographical distance between these facilities and users' homes varies according to the type of district. These results raise the issue of urban planning and healthcare supply in Libreville.