Institute of Urban and Regional Development

The reasons for health planning are obvious and compelling: people demand better facilities for health care and health services. At some point, the classic system of mixed free enterprise and charity in the provision of services and facilities fails to meet popular demands, while at the same time, in a democratic system, the popular demand becomes a significant political factor. At that point, some level of government must arrange for provision -- there must be sufficient hospital beds, sufficient numbers of doctors, nurses and other personnel, sufficient educational facilities to train them, sophisticated technical equipment in the facilities, etc. The question then comes up of how many hospital beds are sufficient, how much personnel is sufficient, how they should be distributed, what means should be developed for an efficient distribution, how should new services and facilities be related to old ones, how should all this be paid for, and so on.