Previously, the achievements of family welfare programs were assessed in terms of targets provided by the central planning authorities
There were many demerits to this approach. They were:

The actual needs of the local community was not taken into consideration
The emphasis was on the quantity of the services rather than quantity
Because of the existence of pre allotted targets and cash benefits, contraceptive methods were provided without first assessing whether the recipients were  good candidates for the same (for example, Intrauterine Contraceptive Devices were introduced without first checking for presence of any reproductive tract infections) …

Human resource is the most important resource of a country
Health of the people plays an important role in development of the country
Hence focus should be on developing the health system in the country
The health sector is considered to have the following sub sectors

Water supply and sanitation
Control of communicable diseases
Medical care facilities like hospitals and primary health centers
Medical education, training and research
Public health services
Family planning
Indigenous systems of medicine

Importance has been given to each of these sub sectors in creating the five year plans in India
The weightage given to each differs according …

Government of India appointed a ‘Health Survey and Planning committee’ in 1959 towards the end of the 2nd five year plan to assess the state of the healthcare field and to measure the progress achieved after implementing the suggestions of the Bhore committee of 1946
Dr. A. L. Mudaliar was the chariman of the committee
The committee submitted its report in 1962
The committee found out that the level of healthcare provided was unsatisfactory and gave the following recommendations

Consolidate the progress made during the first 2 five year plans
Create an ‘All India …

The Government of India in 1943 appointed the Health Survey and Development Committee under Sir Joseph Bhore to assess the health condition of India
The committee consisted of pioneers in the healthcare field who met frequently for 2 years and submitted their report in 1946
The report which is 4 volumes long laid out the proposal for a national program of health services in India
It also stressed the importance of preventive care in addition to curative treatment

The important recommendations of the Bhore committee are:

Integration of preventive and curative services in all levels of …

The various quantitative methods of management are derived from the fields of economics, operational research and budgeting. The various quantitative methods used are:

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Each program is evaluated based on the cost incurred and the monetary gain achieved
But the problem of this approach in the healthcare field is that most achievements cannot be described in terms of economic gain

Cost-Effective Analysis

This is similar to cost-benefit analysis
In contrast to cost-benefit analysis, the cost incurred is compared to the benefit attained in terms of various factors like lives saved, disability prevented etc
This is more …

Management is the efficient utilisation of resources – material, capital and human – for the attainment of specific objectives and goals.  The methods of management based on behavioural sciences are:

Organisational design

A poor organisational design leads to wastage of resources
The organisation should be setup in such a way that is appropriate to the goals to be achieved
For example,  a health system should be able to service the health needs of the population
The technology used should be kept up to date by regular upgrades

Personnel management

Human resource is the most important part of …

Planning is the process which involves defining a problem, assessing the extend to which the problem affects the society, formulating goals with a view to solving the problem, assessing the various intervention measures based on their advantages and disadvantages, selecting the best mode of action, taking steps to implement it, monitoring the progress of the implemented system and evaluation of the results.
The steps of a planning cycle are:

Analysis of the situation

The first step in health planning is the analysis of the current situation.
The different aspects to be studied are:

Population – …

The planning commission of India was setup in 1950 to assess the material, capital and human resources of the country and to efficiently utilise these resources for balanced economic development
In 1957, a perspective planning division was setup to make projections upto 20-25 years
The planning commission consists of a chairman, deputy chairman and 5 members
The 3 major divisions of the planning commission are:

General secretariat
Program advisors
Technical division

The planning commission is in charge of planning the five year plans
It also reviews the performance of existing plans and gives recommendations to the government
Planning process was …

‘Vision 2020 – The right to sight’ is a global initiative by the WHO launched in 1999.
WHO together with the ‘Task Force of International Non Governmental Organisations’ aims to reduce global burden of blindness, and to eliminate preventable blindness by the year 2020
The various NGO’s involved in this initiative are:

International Agency for Prevention of Blindness
Helen Keller International
Al Noor Foundation
ORBIS International
Sight Savers International
International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies
Lions Club International Foundation
Cristopher Blindness Mission
The Carter Centre
Operation Eye Sight Universal

The project is executed in four ’5 year plans’ starting from the year 2000

Strategic approach:

The strategies …

GET 2020 stands for:

Global Elimination of Trachoma by the year 2020. (A global alliance created by WHO)