Geospatial Distribution of Health Centers in Dass Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Using Geographic Information System (GIS) Tools

Abstract

This paper examined the spatial distribution of health care facilities in Dass local government area of Bauchi state using GIS tools. Data were obtained from primary and secondary sources: a GPS was used to collect the coordinates of each health care facility. Data from the Ministry of Health (Bauchi State) about the location, name and types of health care facilities in the study area included one general hospital; one model primary health centre, fourteen primary health centers, one clinic, one dispensary and one health post. Population data was obtained from the National Population Commission (NPC, 2006). GIS analysis was used in analyzing the data. The analysis of nearest neighbour was done by using the extension of Arc GIS 10.5 in the spatial analyst tool and average nearest neighbour. The result shows that there is less than 1% (0.01 level of significance) likelihood that the spatial pattern of the distribution of health care facilities in Dass Local Government Area is dispersed and this could be as a result of random chance. This might be as the result of the fewer number of health facilities. The research recommends that government should locate health care services close to the people as possible as distance was found to influence utilization.