The planning of health services

This is a review of issues in health services planning, addressing issues of conventional planning and more specifically its definition, the domains covered, and its limitations. It analyses the concept of strategic planning, which is considered a more advanced approach to planning, since it takes into account the constantly changing environment surrounding any such process. In the context of strategic planning, the role of stakeholders is explored, as well as the "learning" dimension that should characterize all planning stages. The "eight steps" in planning methodology presented and analysed and implemented planning examples are presented in the area of human resources, hospital beds, and geographical distribution of resources. Particular emphasis is placed on the planning of hospital beds which can be approached through several different techniques, some of which are rather simple based on the use of available indicators, while others are more complex and based on mathematical models and operational research.