Geographical perspective of modeling primary healthcare accessibility

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure the spatial accessibility of primary healthcare facility in Ghanaian rural areas, by determining the barriers to healthcare accessibilities in the Amansie Central District.

Design/methodology/approach: Both network and proximity analyses were performed on the digitized data such as road networks, settlements, population, district boundary, natural resources (rivers, streams and forest) and site location (health facilities). To quantify the population who have access to healthcare the authors used the Ghana Health Service access criteria that health facility should be accessible to an estimated population within 8 km radius from the facility.

Findings: The overall mean distance to the nearest health facility in the district was 8.9 km. Fiankoma sub-district recorded the highest mean distance whereas Tweapease sub-district recorded the least. In general, 31.2 percent of the district population has no access to healthcare facility. Transportation was identified to be one of the major hindrances to healthcare accessibility and this was as a result of poor road network in the district.

Research limitations/implications: The study was restricted to the Amansie Central District of Ghana. This limits the extent of generalization of results.

Originality/value: The study proposed additional sites for siting new health facilities base on criteria such as population, distance, centrality and existing infrastructural development. This will consequently improve healthcare accessibility and utilization by increasing total coverage closer to 100 percent.