CREATING A GIS APPLICATION FOR LOCAL HEALTH CARE

The purpose of this paper is to show how Geographical Information Systems can be used to support health planners on a micro-scale. The first part of this paper discusses the issue that affects local health care planning which includemonitoring of catchment area and facilities management. The second part defines GIS and its possible uses in the health care field. The relevant GIS functions have also been explained. The third part of this paper discusses the created GIS application, which is made for a local health centre in Nasarawa Local Government Area, Nasarawa State. In this application, three sets of GIS models have been produced. These are catchment area, patient profile and patient distribution and disease flows models. The created GIS models are produced to help local health planners in their health care decision output.