ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of health planning in Australia, concentrating on its evolution since the 1970s. Health planning practice has essentially developed in three streams. Comprehensive health planning first developed in the 1970s. Formal planning units were established in New South Wales in 1969 and later in other states. Annual reports of health authorities were only able to report the states’ bed capacity, the average length of stay and the daily average, the number of newborn babies and the numbers who attended outpatient services. The hospital billing system provided additional basic data sets, as did hospital surveys. The significant changes in the health policy environment meant that planning was not a means of developing comprehensive new services but a tool to assist in or to justify cost cutting. In 1980 The Commission of Inquiry into the Efficiency and Administration of Hospitals reported that health information systems were inadequate and that hospital administration appeared to be inefficient.
