[A decade of reflection on health plans in Spain. SESPAS report 2010]

This article reports the experience of the Working Group of the SESPAS-SCSP (Spanish Society of Public Health and Healthcare Administration-Canary Islands Society of Public Health) in health policy and planning during the first decade of the 21st century and its possible impact on the design of health planning. We review the conclusions reached from 2000 to 2008 in the first five Biannual Planning and Health Policy meetings that took place during that period. The workshops were designed with two speakers who presented different views of the subject under discussion, a moderator, who led the debate on the findings, and a narrator who served as a notary and also took responsibility for the text summary of each table. Two general narrators were responsible for the final wording of the conclusions of each workshop or biannual meeting. From 2000 to 2008, there were 25 round tables with 121 conclusions and 160 participants. We believe that the SESPAS working groups provide multidisciplinary professional values within a context of debate in a professional environment, and create spaces for reflection, thus helping to improve the health planning system in Spain.