Health, emergency facilities and development

Health is a major factor in development and it is central to the theory about human capital and endogenous growth. This is because health affects all other economic and development activities. The World Health Organization’s (2003) call for “Health for all” which argues that “everybody needs and is entitled to the highest possible standard of health” is a coherent and indispensable vision for global health and development. The importance of health for development is also highlighted in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) where three of the eight MDGs goals focused on health. So far global actions to promote health for development have focused heavily on primary health care and it is right to do so given the importance of the burden of diseases in low andmiddle income countries (LMICs). However, there is a missing link. Despite their importance, emergency facilities and emergency services have become the poorer cousins of the global health and development effort. We analyze the relationship between emergency facilities, health care delivery and development and develop a simple heuristic or mathematical algorithm for effective location of facilities for regional or diversified health care systems. Smaller systems are considered here to increase understanding and ease of use by stakeholders as well as ownership of facilities for effectiveness of services delivery.