Programme budgeting: an aid to planning and priority setting in health care.

Programme budgeting can assist in overcoming some of the current problems besetting health care planning and management. In particular, health services suffer from lack of (i) explicit objectives; (ii) comprehensive overviews; (iii) knowledge of production functions; (iv) incentives for efficiency; and (v) inappropriate budgeting structures. Programme budgeting while not in itself capable of overcoming all these problems can create an information framework which first highlights but secondly fosters amelioration of these problems. In essence programme budgeting links outputs and inputs by health care programme. This facilitates monitoring, planning, control and the fostering of evaluation. Two examples of the use of programme budgets are presented.