PLANNING THEORIES IN HEALTH SERVICES PLANNING FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A CASE STUDIES
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Background: Health planning is defined by WHO in 2017 as “the ordinary process of defining the community health problems, identifying unmet needs and surveying the resources to meet them, establishing priority goals that are realistic feasible and projecting administrative action to accomplish the purpose of the proposed program”. Studying planning theories such as rationalism, incrementalism and mixed-scanning using analysis tools like SWOT and GAP analysis allows the identification of the key components of complex health problems and providing a better focus for potential interventions. From this article, the health planning in developing countries is able to be studied.
Materials and Methods: The information used in this article is based on literature review. The primary search were conducted via public domain database such as Google and Yahoo, apart from searching through journal website including PubMed, MEDLINE, Science Direct, Wiley and Scopus using the keywords. Then two case studies were selected for each theory in order to analyse in depth the application of planning theories in health services planning. Subsequently, each case study is analysed thoroughly using SWOT analysis and GAP analysis.
Result: SWOT and GAP analysis are used to analyse health programme in featured countries. The case studies also enable us to differentiate the application of planning theories in health planning among developing countries.
Conclusion: SWOT and GAP analysis enable us to identify the effects of internal and external environmental factors on a programme. The strengths and opportunities should be the foundation in designing a programme, whereas weaknesses and threats will be the boundaries that need to be overcome to create successful health programmes. The gap identified from current planning is also really helpful in designing a better programme in the future. Each theory has its own strengths and weaknesses. Each of them is different from the others in term of applications that are mainly based on resources availability, time limit, planning capacity, commitments from stakeholders, nature of the problem and local circumstances.
Keywords: planning theories, health services planning, developing country