Implementation of health facilities in a new city.

The problem is to determine the number - and thus the size - of the health centers, and their location. The solution depends on two opposing factors: the total construction cost, which is increasing with the number of centers, and the walking distance for the patient, which is decreasing with the number of centers. For a given critical distance, the authors find - using techniques of location theory in network - the smallest number of centers that will ensure that all inhabitants are located within the critical distance. A Fortran program in which the sensitivity of the solution is studied as a function of the given critical distance is developed.SCOPUS: ar.j