EXAMINING REGIONAL DISPARITIES IN THE CAPACITY OF HEALTHCARE SERVICE DELIVERY IN AZERBAIJAN

The healthcare sector is one of the most important fields determining a country's social welfare, economic development, and the quality of its human capital. Therefore, measuring healthcare performance and analyzing regional differences are of great importance in terms of health policy analysis. This study aims to comparatively examine healthcare indicators of 14 economic regions of Azerbaijan within the framework of Multi-Criteria Decision Making, focusing on regional health performance. Four main criteria representing the healthcare system are considered: number of physicians per 10,000 population (K1), number of paramedical staff (K2), number of hospital beds (K3), and outpatient clinic capacity (K4). The analysis consists of weighting, ranking, and classification stages. In the first stage, criteria weights are determined using AHP, Entropy, and CRITIC methods; in the second stage, regions are ranked using TOPSIS and PROMETHEE methods. In the final stage, regions are classified according to their performance levels using the FLOWSORT method. The analysis based on data from 2012 and 2024 shows that healthcare performance in Azerbaijan differs regionally. While Baku and Ganja-Dashkasan regions demonstrate high performance, some regions lag behind in terms of healthcare infrastructure and human resources. These findings provide important insights for improving regional health performance and for more effective resource allocation within the scope of health policy analysis.