Health planning is a systematic process that includes defining community health problems, identifying unmet needs, setting realistic goals, and projecting administrative actions for programs. It consists of objectives, policies, programs, schedules, and budget planning, emphasizing the necessity of organization and effective resource allocation. The planning process involves assessing needs, defining objectives, evaluating resources, and implementing and monitoring the plan to ensure effective outcomes and adjustments.

1. Health Planning

2. Health Planning: The orderly process of defining
community health problems, identifying unmet
needs & surveying the resources to meet them,
establishing priority goals that are realistic &
feasible & projecting administrative action to
accomplish the purpose of the proposed program

3. Plan: A blue print for taking action. It consists of
five elements:
• Objectives: planned end point of all activities
• Policies: guiding principles stated as an expectation &
not as a commandment. It is defined as the setting,
adjustment & maintenance of social & economic
priorities for development
• Program: A sequence of activities designed to implement
policies & accomplish objectives
• Schedule: a time sequence of the work to be done
• Budget

4. Planning may be defined as
• A process of analyzing a system or defining a
problem
• Assessing the extent to which the problem exists
as a need
• Formulating the goals & objectives to alleviate or
ameliorate those identified needs, examining &
choosing from among alternate intervention
strategies, initiating the necessary for its
implementation, monitoring the system to ensure
proper implementation of the plan & evaluating
the results in the light of stated objectives

5. Need for planning: planning & management is
essential to maximize the use of available
resources& achieve the defined & expected
objectives
• To match the limited resources with many
problems
• To eliminate wasteful expenditure & duplication
of expenditure
• To develop the best course of action to
accomplish the defined objectives

6. Importance of planning:
• It provides direction
• It provides a unifying framework of decision
making throughout the org
• Helps to reveal future opportunities & threats
• Prevents piecemeal decision
• Facilitates control (ensuring that activities
conform to plan, involves a cycle in which
standards are set, performance is measured
relative to these standards & deviations are
identified and controlled)

7. Types of planning:
• Directional or policy planning: a framework of
intent & philosophy within which the program
proceeds
• Administrative & managerial planning: overall
implementation of policies, mobilization & co
ordination of resources in terms of men, material
& money in time frame
• Operational planning: actual delivery of services
or programs to the people. Includes participatory
planning. Produces info about local conditions,
needs & attitudes & develops a commitment
towards the program

8. Types of plans:
• Descriptive: stated in words descriptively, what
is to be accomplished
• Budget: stated in financial terms
• Strategic plan: long term plans( 5-10yrs)
• Operational plan: short term- day to day
activities

9. Pre-planning: preparation for planning.
Preconditions are:
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Government interest
Legislation
Organization for planning: Planning commission
Administrative planning: for proper coordination
of activities & implementation of plan at all
levels. Central & state health ministries serve
this function

10. Steps involved in planning proces
• Forecast & develop the planning premise:
determine the basic assumptions upon which
the plan will be built. Forecast of economic
activity & technological breakthrough are a vital
source of planning premise
• Define specific objectives
• Develop & test alternatives
• Decide on the course of action
– Plan formulation
– Plan execution
– Plan evaluation

11. Plan Formulation: steps involved are:
• Assessment of the situation & fact finding: what
the situation is & what it could be. Useful info are
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Topographical & physical cond
Agricultural procedures
Demographic profile
Cultural beliefs & attitudes
Socio economic status
Health status
Health facilities available
Availability of technical manpower
Training facilities
Info about the community: social institutions, literacy levels,
socially disadvantaged groups & map of the area

12. • Assessment of health needs & demands: health
needs – deficiencies in health that call for
preventive, curative, control or eradication
measures. Experience from the past will help to
project the situation & to establish future needs
of the population
• Establishment of goals & objectives: to avoid
haphazard activities & wastage of scarce
resources. Provides an overall criteria for
measuring performance. Depends on available
resources. At higher levels obj are general but at
successively lower levels they become more
specific & precise. Must be relevant, feasible &
measurable

13. • Assessment of resources: direct & indirect
allocation to be assessed at initial stages & ways
to bridge the gap b/w required & available
resources decided
• Establishment of priorities: foll parameters to be
taken into consideration
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Size of the problem
Needs
Resources
Expected impact
Acceptability
Political & community interests & pressures
Preventability

14. • Identification of possible interventions: guided
by:
• Feasibility: Technical, operational & administrative
by undertaking pilot project or experience of the
intervention elsewhere
• Economic considerations: cost benefit & cost
effectiveness analysis
• Collateral benefits: gives benefit other than the
one for which it is intended can be preferred

15. Time framing (Phrasing): prepared in 4 phases:
• Lead time:
• To develop procedures
• To secure necessary equipments, materials & supplies
• To secure required personnel
• Initial trial period:
• To experiment or test the program
• To conduct tentative evaluation & consultation
• To modify the plan, if required
• Peak load of adjustments:
• To implement the plan
• To provide extra resource, manpower, materials etc for peak
situations
• Evaluation & re-planning:
• Whether they helped in attaining the objectives. If not, replan the program

16. • Write up of formulated plan: preparation of the
detailed report of complete plan in all respects
for its execution. Plan should be communicated
to the concerned persons
• Plan execution: it is at the implementation
stage that shortcomings often appear in
practice. Main considerations at this stage
include:
• Definition of roles & tasks
• Selection, training, motivation & supervision of the manpower
involved
• Organization & communication
• The efficiency of individual institutions such as hospitals or
health centers

17. Monitoring & Evaluation
• Monitoring: implies day to day supervision & follow up of
activities to ensure that they are proceeding as planned &
on schedule. Continuous process of observations,
discussions, meetings, recording & reporting of the various
activities & as such whenever there is any deviation
corrective steps can be taken immediately
• Evaluation: measures the degree to which objectives &
targets are fulfilled & quality of services obtained, the
productivity of available resources in achieving the clearly
defined objectives. Measures how much output or cost
effectiveness is achieved

18. Challenges
• Correct assesment of situational analysis
– Use of Indicators- Epidemiological,
Service Utilisation,Social determinants
• Prioitisation- Assignment of Priorities
• Resource allocation and Justification
• Development Of End Point Indicators In a
timely Phased manner
• Lack Of managerial capablities for majoity
in the health system