Classification of private hospitals in Northern Senatorial District of Taraba State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study determined the spatial distribution and classification of private hospitals in the Northern Senatorial District of Taraba, Nigeria. A survey research design was adopted for the study. Interview, ground truth observation and handheld GPS device were the tools employed in data collection. Data analysis involved the descriptive statistics and geospatial mapping of the study area. The result shows that there are 40 private hospitals across the northern senatorial districts of Taraba state. These are distributed as follows; Karim-Lamido has seven (7), Ardo-Kola has three (3), Lau has three (3), Yorro has three (3), Zing has one (1), and Jalingo has twenty-three (23). The result shows that the nearest neighbour ratio is 0.816940 (observed mean distance divided by the expected mean distance), with a critical value of <-2.58 and a test of significance of P-value of 0.0071445. The result shows that the spatial pattern of distribution of private hospitals in the northern Taraba senatorial district is random, and there is less than 1% likelihood that this random pattern could be the result of random chance. The random pattern shows that the hospitals are not evenly distributed over space. This implies that the private hospitals in the northern senatorial district of Taraba State are randomly distributed. The result shows that there are 94 medical doctors and 176 nurses representing 27.9% and 52.2%, respectively, showing an average ratio of one doctor to two nurses per hospital (1:2). The result revealed that two (2) private hospitals are single-specialty tertiary care hospitals; Nobis Eye Clinic offering ophthalmological care services while Balsam Clinic offers osteology services. Three (3) general secondary care services (Jaji Memorial Hospital, UMCN Hospital & Catholic Hospital), while the remaining thirty-five offer primary care/nursing homes. The result also shows that there are three (3) specialty hospitals in the study area; this includes osteology (Balsam Clinic), ophthalmology (Nobis Eye Clinic) and a dental hospital (Family Dental Hospital). All these are located in Jalingo, the state capital. The others offer services in the category of general hospitals, though only a few (3) have the bed capacity to be classified as a general hospital. The study recommended that the distribution of private hospitals should be planned in such a way that they can reach more patients in terms of spatial coverage. It is further recommended that private hospitals should upgrade their facilities and bed capacity and employ more nurses and pharmacists to cater for the vast number of patients in the study area.