Application of GIS in Health Human Resource Deployment to Health Facilities: A Case of Blantyre

Availability of healthcare professionals and accessibility to healthcare facilities are important aspects of health system and has direct impact on the population's health. Applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques, this study analysed the geographical allocation of health professionals per categories of nurses, clinicians and Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) and how GIS could help in distribution of professionals to health facilities. Using Blantyre District Health Office in Southern Malawi as a case study, data on people accessing each health facility and number of health professionals at a facility was collected and analysed. The study found out that applying GIS can help enrich the information required for equitably distributing health human resource. Some health facilities seen to have more personnel were discovered that they still need deployment of additional staff to those health facilities seem to have inadequate number of personnel. Using provider-to-population ratios the research was able to isolate Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) and Medically Underserved Areas using a threshold based criteria of 1,000:2 as per WHO requirement. The research also adopted gravity model of migration of predict the degree of interaction between two places. Employing gravity model and talking into account population size of two facilities and their distance, the research was able to determine relative strength of the bond between two health facilities and predict where more professionals could be deployed.