Functional Planning Units are a key feature of health facility guidelines and provide detailed information regarding common clinical departments or services in hospitals and other healthcare settings. Examples include a range of inpatient units, a medical imaging department and community health centre.

Each Health Planning Unit contains information relating to a service description, related policies and guidelines, operational planning and design considerations. Each Health Planning Unit also includes a detailed schedule of accommodation and functional relationship diagram. In selected Functional Planning Units, the schedules of accommodation may describe a range of service levels or scenarios so that information can be used to brief services ranging from small district hospitals through to complex tertiary hospital services.