Itis basically a lecture for UGS in a medical school as apart of their syllabus on Health administration as a part of Community medicine

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