Working area
The Health Council has divided the broad domain of public health and healthcare into six advisory domains: vaccination and screening, nutrition, human environment, working conditions, health care, and lifestyle and health behaviour.
Attention to health differences and environmental impact
In its advisory reports, the Health Council pays attention to the accessibility of good health for all, for current and future generations.
The council aims to provide advice that contributes to an effective health policy for all. Therefore, it is important that policy is inclusive and reduces differences in health between different population groups, or at least does not unintentionally increase these differences. Therefore, in its advice, the council considers the question whether policy measures are appropriate for different groups and how all target groups can be reached sufficiently during implementation.
It is important that health policy contributes to combating climate change and its damaging effects on the health of current and future generations. Also, the council considers the environmental impact of its advice. An example of this is the question how the environmental impact of nutritional recommendations or devices for screening or healthcare can be weighed against the health gains.
Work programme
The issues that the Health Council is or will be working on are described in a work programme that is published annually in September. The work programme is drawn up in consultation with the departments. Both the Health Council and the departments put possibly relevant issues on the agenda. To ensure that the work programme suits the task, role and ambitions of the Health Council, the council annually reviews the scope and prioritisation of the advisory issues.