Sub-Saharan Public Hospitals Geo-coded database

Timely access to emergency care can significantly reduce mortality. International benchmarks for access to emergency hospital care have been established to guide ambitions for universal health care by 2030. However, there is no complete geo-coded inventory of hospital services in Africa in relation to how populations might access these services. We assembled a geocoded inventory of public hospitals across 48 countries and islands of sub-Saharan Africa from 100 different sources. A cost distance algorithm based on the location of 4908 public hospitals, population distributions and road networks were used to compute the proportion of populations living within a combined walking and motorised travel time of 2 hours to emergency hospital services. We estimate that 286 million (29%) people and 64 million (28%) women of child bearing age are located more than 2 hours from the nearest hospital. Marked differences were observed within and between countries. Only 17 countries reached the international benchmark of more than 80% of their populations living within a 2-hour travel time of the nearest hospital.