Health Care Facilities Mapping And Database Creation Using GIS In Chikun Local Government, Kaduna State, Nigeria
The study investigated the spatial distribution of health care centres in Chikun local government area of Kaduna state, Nigeria with a view to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technique in health care management planning. The study used the administrative map of the study area collected from the local government as the base map. Information on the number and addresses of the health care centres in the study area were collected from the local government while the coordinates of the health care centres were obtained in the field using Global Positioning System (GPS). These data were incorporated into GIS environment and analysed using Arc Map 9.2 software. The study reveals that there were 41 health care centres in the study area with 23 (56.1%) been private health care centres and 18 (43.9%) been public health care centres. The study also reveals the pattern of distribution of the heath care centres within the study area. The study also used World Health Organisation criteria for the location of health care centres in developing countries to propose 9 new sites for the location of new health care centres to adequately cover the health needs of the people of the study area.
