Spatial Analysis of Flow Patterns to Healthcare Facilities in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

Healthcare facilities in developing countries are most times inadequate and access to the available ones is made difficult by some uncongenial urban environmental conditions.  These among other factors results in the poor health indicators normally reported for cities in developing countries. Hence, this study examined the accessibility patterns of people to healthcare facilities and factors responsible for such patterns in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria. The locations of healthcare facilities and respondents in the study area were captured through handheld GPS receivers. Also, a set of 591 questionnaires were administered to elicit information about people’s perception of healthcare facilities in the city. Spatial analyses of phenomena of interest were carried out using GIS analytical tools. Specifically, the road network was digitized with a connectivity rule from Ikonos Satellite Image and was converted to network data set. Also, the analysis of travel patterns to each healthcare facility was done using origin-destination matrix in the network analysis within the GIS environment. Results showed that the travel distance of most patients to tertiary healthcare facilities is above the WHO standard; while the travel distance to primary and secondary healthcare facilities is within the WHO standard. Furthermore, result showed disparities in the preference of people to healthcare facilities occasioned by distance, transport cost, travel time, quality of service and socio-economic factors. Approximately 62% of the household patronized hospital for treatment, 23% made use of herb and 15% engaged in self-medication. The result of this study also showed distance covered to healthcare facilities and flow patterns of healthcare users in which the distance are geometrically measured in numerical unit which has been rarely employed and these were documented in the study. The study concluded that spatial restructuring and reorganization of healthcare facilities is necessary in order to enhance access to healthcare facilities in Kano city.