Health-promoting health services - Objective domain 6

Health services are of considerable importance to long-term health trends through their specific expertise, authority, broad knowledge and ability to come into contact with a large part of the population.

A more health-promoting and disease-preventative perspective should permeate all health services and be an obvious part of all care and treatment. Primary care plays an important role in these health promotion efforts.

It is in day-to-day meetings with patients that health services have their greatest public health potential. In working with patients, health services should contribute to less disease, less disability and less pain, as well as make it easier for the chronically ill to live a good life with their illness. Health services should also prevent illness.

This should be done by providing support to more vulnerable individuals or groups, and by supporting equal health at the population level. Work aimed at the population is done by reporting causes of health inequalities to the surrounding world, as well as by cooperating with other key actors in health promotion and preventative efforts.