Evaluating The Spatial Accessibility Of Public Healthcare Facilities Using Geospatial Techniques: A Case Of Lemi Kura Sub City, Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Abstract

This research explores potential use of Geographic information system Techniques for analyzing public healthcare distribution patterns and accessibility in Lemi Kura Sub City Addis Ababa Ethiopia. The study is principally aimed to evaluate the spatial distribution and Accessibility Analysis of public Health Facilities to determine the demand and the health facilities spatial location in the study area. Specifically the study is aimed to assess the distribution pattern of public healthcare facilities, to assess physical accessibility to health facilities, and to advise the Master Facility List Data Contents. To do this, all the required data were integrated into the GIS environment and spatial analyses and network analysis were carried out. Average nearest neighbour analysis was employed to assess the spatial pattern and distribution of the facilities. Network analyses were employed to analyze the range of service area in terms of Distance and time. The nearest neighbourhood ratio (NNR=1.231497) shows a random distribution pattern for health care facilities. According to the standards set by the Federal Ministry of health about six health institutions do not meet the criteria. According to the World Health Organization specified criteria of 4 km² catchment areas almost 172 km² area (4km - 6km) don’t meet the criteria in line with WHO (1997) standards and Based on a time interval service area map the study found that the residents in Lemi Kura Sub city could get to the nearest Health Center at 20 %, 38% and 42% within 5, 15 and 30 min respectively. In general As the FMOH standard requires the existing Healthcares were not enough in the study area only four health centers meet the standards’and four Health centers don't meet the requirements and two woreda’s don't have public health centers. However there is one specialized hospital in woreda 02.Therefore, it is important to plan health care for distribution improvement based on population size. The government should improve the number of HealthCare’s as the population is growing and the cost of private health care is beyond the financial capacity of most residents. It will take a great deal of political commitment to increase the distribution of health information in the sub-city and to make it more affordable in terms of population distribution, as well as to implement a Master Facilitation List.