Location -Allocation Analysis of Public Health Site Selection Using P-Centre Model: A Case Study of Chanchaga Local Government Area, Minna, Niger State

Abstract

Healthcare planning is a challenging field that depends on spatial data such as location and characteristics of health center demand. Chanchaga Local Government Area lack adequate healthcare facilities. So, the need to locate new public healthcare facilities is necessary if distance with population is considered. Garmin 76CSx handheld GPS receiver was used to mapped the existing health facilities and overlaid it on a high resolution Satellite image of 0.5m (GeoEye-1))of the study area. Base on the analysis it was discovered that inadequate healthcare facilities have been the problem of the people in Chanchaga Local Government Area. Thus, there is need to site more new public healthcare facilities in other to solve the problem of uncovered areas in the study area by considering proximity (distance) to the demand (Potential users) using P-Centre algorithm in determining optimal location of public health facilities within study area with the primary goal of minimizing the maximum response time (i.e. Time between a demand site and nearest service location using a given number of service locations).Twenty healthcare facilities were found in the study area which actually shown that the facilities are randomly distributed using Nearest Neighbourhood Analysis in ArcGIS 9.3 Software. Thus, Factor and Constraint maps were produced and overlaid on the buffered of the existing public health facilities using ArcGIS 9.3 software. The study shows that, the health facilities were randomly distributed in the locality with four of them not suitably located affected by the factor criteria which need to be relocated to the proposed suitable site. Similarly, the research showed that the city heart’s centre is enjoying more presence of public health facilities than the extreme North-West of the Local Government Council with fewer facilities.