Walk how far to see doctor in Singapore?

By Alice Lee (1007346), SUTD MUSPP
April 2023
Submitted as an assignment for the 02.526 Interactive Data Visualisation elective in SUTD.

Equity of public transit access to healthcare facilities in Singapore

Public healthcare facilities and their nearest transit stops

The map below shows each healthcare facility and its closest bus stop, MRT station exit and taxi stand.
Click on each icon to see the related transit stop and walking distance information.

Note: While taxis in Singapore are able to stop at the dropoff porch of most, if not all healthcare facilities, this map highlights a possible issue faced by seniors accessing taxis in the return trip, especially among those who do not know how to use ride hail apps such as Grab.

Zoom to: Select a Healthcare Facility

Last-mile walking distance and duration from healthcare facilities

The bar charts below show the walking distances between healthcare facilities and their nearest 2 bus stops, MRT station exit or taxi stand. These are then converted into walking durations (minutes) for seniors, assuming their average walking speed is 58m per minute.

Generally, seniors would need to walk the least from the nearest bus stop to all healthcare facilities, compared to the nearest MRT station or Taxi stand.

The average minimum last-mile distance for restructured hospitals is the longest compared to polyclinics or community hospitals regardless of the transit mode, which means that on average, residents accessing restructured hospitals tend to have to walk longer in the last mile from their transit nodes, than residents accessing polyclinics or community hospitals.

Distribution of last-mile distances from healthcare facilities, between transit modes

The boxplots below show the distribution of walking distances from transit stops (nearest 2 bus stops, MRT station or taxi stand) to healthcare facilities across different modes of transportation and facility types, and their median, quartiles, and any outliers.

You can toggle the visibility of particular boxes on or off by clicking on the corresponding label in the legend. Hover over a particular box to display summary statistics. You can also zoom in on a particular section of the plot by dragging the mouse over that section.

From the boxplots, the walking distances from healthcare facilities to MRT stations and taxi stands are more variable than the walking distances from bus stops.

Outliers for the MRT and taxi modes exist for some healthcare facilities, which means residents visiting these healthcare facilities would be most compelled to pick the bus option.

Equity of last-mile distance from healthcare facilities, between transit modes

In the parallel coordinates chart below, each line represents a healthcare facility. Mouseover each line to see all the healthcare facilities of the same type and the name of the healthcare facility.

From the parallel coordinates chart, most lines tend to go in an upwards direction from "Bus stop" to "MRT Station" then downwards again to "Taxi Stand" for polyclinics and restructured hospitals. This shows that ending one's journey with MRT results in the longest last-mile walking distance for residents accessing polyclinics and restructured hospitals, compared to bus or taxi.

For community hospitals, most lines tend to go upwards from "Bus Stop" to "MRT Station" to "Taxi Stand". This shows that residents who are reliant on taking taxi (especially those with limited mobility), without assistance to flag a cab to the pickup porch or the use of ride hailing apps, home from a community hospital may have to walk longer to a taxi stand.

Healthcare facilities with flatter lines across transit modes result in higher equity between transit modes for their residents, while healthcare facilities with greater changes in the steepness of the lines result in lower equity as they force residents to decide on the best transit mode with the least walking distance. For example, residents thinking of accessing Marine Parade Polyclinic, Pasir Ris Polyclinic, IMH or Alexandra Hospital are more forced to consider taking a bus or taxi compared to MRT. Residents who want to go home from Bright Vision Hospital or St Luke's Hospital would face greater issues taking a taxi if they do not have assistance flagging or hailing a taxi.

Limitations and future research directions

The taxi stand data from the LTA DataMall is not comprehensive and excludes taxi stands within hospitals. Some healthcare facilities might also assist visitors in flagging taxis for them. Hence, the walking distance from taxi stands to healthcare facilities is likely overestimated.

There are also medical escort and transportation services available that can help seniors travel to and from their homes for medical appointments. These can help overcome the last-mile access problem for healthcare, for those who can benefit from the services. However, these are available at a higher cost (means-tested Government subsidies are available).

In future research, I would explore the inequities in access to healthcare in terms of where residents stay (e.g. residential subzones), rather than specific healthcare facility types, as well as total travel duration for a mix of travel modes in addition to the last-mile walking distances.

The Government has announced plans to build more polyclinics in Singapore, which can also be considered in future research.