Abstract:
Pakistan is among the countries with developing nature of healthcare management systems. In spite of an extensive network of healthcare facilities, health status of the people of Muzaffargarh tehsil as a whole is below the desired level. The study has made use of GIS to relate the population's demand to the availability of healthcare facilities. It assesses the inadequacy and equity in access of healthcare facilities. Geographic distribution of existing healthcare facilities is utilized to analyze their coverage areas. The suburban area of tehsil is divided into zones for analyzing the results at small scale i.e. at local level. Road network was incorporated to measure the accessibility at 5, 10 and 15 minutes time intervals. An agent-based scheme has been used for the identification of potential and suitable sites for the allocation of new healthcare facilities. The study identifies zone-3 having the maximum accessibility i.e. within 15 minutes' drive time for the population towards nearer healthcare units. Zone 3 and 4 shows the maximum coverage area because of the better road network. GIS technique using Agent based modelling resulted in 13 new potential locations for the allocation of new healthcare units to better serve the population of these zones. The GIS based platform help the healthcare departments. For proper management of healthcare system, it was important to calculate quickest route from small healthcare units to the main hospital (DHQ). The model outputs such as accessibility, area coverage, identification of new facilities and better routing were published using the ArcGIS server. They could be beneficial for health departments and other stakeholders.
