Mapping the inequalities of medical resource provision in China.

The outbreak of COVID-19 exposed the shortage of medical resources and the imbalance between cities in China. To better reveal this inequality, this study uses cartograms and half-violin plots to visualize the hospital beds per 10,000 people, medical personnel per 10,000 people and number of 3A hospitals in China. We find that China has made remarkable progress in the primary healthcare system; however, there is still a significant imbalance in the distribution of medical resources, especially the high-quality part. There is a two- to three-fold gap in primary medical care resources between diverse cities, and high-quality medical resources are highly concentrated in cities with high administrative rank and influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]