Keleher Helen
Department of Health Social Science, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Caulfield East, Vic. 3145, Australia.
Aust J Prim Health. 2011;17(4):327-33. doi: 10.1071/PY11044.
Australia's health reform documents make reference to the need to address health equity and strengthen population health planning. They make a stronger case about the need to address equity than policy documents that have preceded them. However, they do not make clear that health care is one of many determinants of health and equity, and that planning for health care, social care and social health outcomes are necessary for effectiveness. In other words, population health planning is much more than health care planning. Population health plans vary in their intent and design, depending on the population catchment for the plan, the remit of the organisations involved and the paradigms from which the plan is written. A stronger vision is necessary if population health plans are to affect health inequities. Comprehensive population planning is necessarily intersectoral with engagement across a wide cross-section of government department policies, portfolios and data sources, with a focus on the determinants of health and inequity, and a sound foundation of social values. This paper unpacks the elements of population health planning, the data sources that may be used and their interrogation in terms of the determinants of health, and presents core principles that distinguish population health planning from other types of planning to ensure that planning is comprehensive and able to be actioned.
澳大利亚的卫生改革文件提到了应对健康公平问题和加强人口健康规划的必要性。与之前的政策文件相比，它们更有力地论证了应对公平问题的必要性。然而，这些文件并未明确指出医疗保健只是健康和公平的众多决定因素之一，且为实现有效性，对医疗保健、社会护理和社会健康结果进行规划是必要的。换句话说，人口健康规划远不止医疗保健规划。人口健康计划的意图和设计各不相同，这取决于计划所覆盖的人群、相关组织的职责范围以及制定计划所依据的范式。要使人口健康计划对健康不平等现象产生影响，就需要有更明确的愿景。全面的人口规划必然是跨部门的，需要广泛参与政府各部门的政策、业务组合和数据来源，关注健康和不平等的决定因素，并以坚实的社会价值观为基础。本文剖析了人口健康规划的要素、可能使用的数据来源以及根据健康决定因素对这些数据的审视，并提出了一些核心原则，这些原则将人口健康规划与其他类型的规划区分开来，以确保规划具有全面性且能够付诸实施。
