The spatial dimensions of accessibility to general hospitals in rural Nigeria

The problem of inadequate health services in rural Nigeria is worsened by poor location decisions which have resulted in various degrees of inaccessibility to the existing health facilities. In this paper, some accessibility measures are applied to determine the spatial variation of access to general hospitals in the rural Anambra State of Nigeria. The local government area (LGA) is used as the spatial unit of analysis and the spheres of influence of the general hospitals located in each LGA are measured using three indices of accessibility. The scores for each LGA are aggregated and classified according to the levels of accessibility using a cluster analysis technique. The emerging clusters are briefly examined and a needs assessment of all the LGAs for general hospitals is carried out. Based on this assessment, the minimum number of general hospitals required in each LGA to effect an equity of access is suggested. Possible advantages accruing from this allocation procedure are presented and their policy implications discussed.