ASSESSMENT OF THE ACCESSIBILITY OF PRIMARY HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM IN KAURU LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

Improvements in access to Primary Health Care (PHC) pave the way for advancement in the quality of people’s life. This study assesses access to PHC in Kauru LGA, Kaduna State, with a view to provides necessary information for future health planning effort. The spatial locations of all the 40 healthcare facilities were ascertained using Global Position System (GPS) to create a database (using Arc map 10.0). Evaluative and survey design were adopted for this work, health personnel, equipment, types of services and facilities structure were evaluated. Also access was decomposed into five dimension as; availability, accessibility, affordability, acceptability and adequacy, questionnaires were administered to assess the people perception in this five dimension. The Nearest Neighbour inferential statistical technique was used to establish the distribution patterns of health facilities in the study area. Buffer analysis was carried out to help establish the locational efficiency, highlight area of marginal services and propose model for future development, using service radius of 3KM for Health Clinics (HC) and 15KM for the Primary Healthcare Centre’s (PHCs). The result of the study findings reveals a Nearest Neighbor index of 1.2966 outputs, indicating dispersion. The buffer analysis showed that healthcare facilities were efficiently located; therefore no new sites were proposed in the study area. The survey carried out revealed that healthcare delivery in the study area is fairly accessible to the people. However, the study recommends the upgrading of over 75% of the facilities structure, the enhancement in the provision of necessary equipments and the provision of more qualify medical personnel in all the healthcare facilities in the study area.