Norwegian Directorate of Health

Name:

Bjørn Inge Larsen

Tone P. TORGERSEN

Title:

Director

Email:

bil@helsedir.no

tpt@helsedir.no

Telephone:

+47 24 16 31 56

+ 47 810 20 050

Fax:

Website:

http://www.helsedirektoratet.no

Address:

Norwegian Directorate of Health
Public Health and Welfare Division
Universitetsgata 2
NO-0130 Oslo

Country:

Norway

Profile

The Directorate of Health is a specialist directorate and an administrative body under the Ministry of Health and Care Services and the Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion. The Directorate is administered by the Ministry of Health and Care Services.

The Directorate of Health’s societal mission is to improve the whole population’s social security and health through comprehensive and targeted efforts across services, sectors and administrative levels.

The directorate shall base these efforts on its role as a specialist body, regulatory administrator and implementer in the areas of health and care policy.

The Directorate of Health is a specialist body both in the area of public health and living conditions and in the area of health services. This entails:

Being responsible for monitoring the conditions that affect public health and living conditions and monitoring the trends in the health and care services. On this basis, the directorate shall offer advice and guidance about strategies and measures aimed at central government authorities, regional and local authorities, the health enterprises, voluntary organisations, the private sector and the population.
Comparing knowledge and experience in professional matters and setting national standards of behaviour in certain areas.
Being an organisation that provides expertise to the authorities, various sectors, the service providers, interest organisations, research and development circles and the media.

Health in Country

The National Health Plan for Norway (2007-2010)

In the National Health Plan for Norway (2007-2010) the government presents the status of the health service in Norway today, and suggests policy measures that are intended to result in a better health service.

National Health Plan (PDF)

National strategy to reduce inequalities in health

The Norwegian population enjoys good health. However, averages conceal major, systematic inequalities. Norway is a stratified society, where the most privileged people, in economic terms, have the best health. These inequalities in health are socially determined, unfair and modifiable. The government has therefore decided to initiate a broad, long-term strategy to reduce social inequalities in health.

In keeping with the identifies need for a broad approach, the strategy operates with four priority areas for the next ten years:

Reduce social inequalities that contribute to inequalities in health
Reduce social inequalities in health-related behaviour and use of the health services
Target initiatives to promote social inclusion
Develop knowledge and cross-sectoral tools

The report is available at the Ministry of Health and Care Services' web page.

The Coordination Reform

Coordination has been recognised for many years as a problem within the health and care services, and many good development activities are underway. The services are of high quality and most patients are well taken care of. Users, patients, relatives and the services themselves nevertheless report that coordination remains a major problem. So better coordination should be one of the health and care sector’s most important areas to develop ahead.

The strong initiative for better coordination will run parallel to development activities and efforts to improve quality at the individual service sites. The Coordination Reform points out three primary challenges in the Norwegian health services and recommends five primary steps to face them. The goal is for the patient to receive the proper treatment – at the right place and right time. The three major challenges are:

Patients’ needs for coordinated services are not being sufficiently met.
In the services there is too little initiative aimed at limiting and preventing disease.
Population development and the changing range of illnesses among the population.

Report available at the ministry of health and care’s web page: http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/HOD/Samhandling%20engelsk_PDFS.pdf

Projects & Programmes

There are many projects and programmes happening on local/municipal level. If you would like to receive more information about those projects and programmes, please contact the Norwegian Directorate of Health.

News & Publications

The Norwegian Directorate of Health’s annual report on measures to reduce social inequalities in health. Norwegian Public Health Policy report 2009

In 2007 the Norwegian government issued a strategy against social inequalities in health – Report No.20 (2006-2007) to the Storting - National Strategy to reduce social inequalities in health.

One of the main measures in this white paper was to establish a reporting system to provide a systematic overview of progress on the efforts to reduce inequalities in health. This was to be achieved by monitoring trends using a set of indicators for the intervention areas of income, childhood conditions/education, work and working environment, health behaviour, health services and social inclusion.

The Reporting system is established in close collaboration with the relevant directorates/ministries and professional environments in the various sectors involved. The present report is the first output from this reporting system.

The report is available at the Norwegian Directorate of Health’s web page.

Health Promotion – achieving good health for all

The present report discusses challenges and issues related to health promotion and public health in Norway. Although the average Norwegian enjoys good health and a high standard of living, there are considerable social inequalities in health and life expectancy. The current state of health – and tomorrow’s health challenges – are largely related to how people live their lives and how society is organised.

This report discusses how these challenges may be met, suggests measures and argues that we must act now to ensure the health and welfare of future generations.

The present report is the most recent in a series of reports on challenges and trends in the health services from the Norwegian Directorate of Health.

The report is available at the Norwegian Directorate of Health’s web page.