We take health to heart

The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) is dedicated to the health of the Swiss population. It’s responsible for national healthcare policy and for health and accident insurance; and it promotes healthcare issues and interests on the international stage.

The FOPH

• works to ensure the provision of high-quality healthcare that is accessible to all;
• collaborates with the cantons and other partners to further refine Switzerland’s healthcare services;
• develops the strategic and legal foundations required and supports projects to these ends;
• puts the healthcare policy decisions of the Federal Council, the Parliament and the population into practice;
• strengthens health protection, early detection and prevention;
• promotes and supports the digital transformation;
• helps to ensure the continued affordability of effective healthcare provision.

The FOPH has a total annual budget of some CHF 190 million and a workforce (as at the beginning of 2025) of 612 personnel.

The FOPH is responsible for ensuring the observance of numerous laws and ordinances that have been passed by the Federal Council and the Parliament. While there were 16 such laws in 2016, this has since risen to 24 federal laws. So the range of our duties and tasks here is correspondingly wide.

We are further responsible for ensuring social health and accident insurance, for biomedical issues such as genetic testing, research involving humans, transplantation medicine and protection from radiation and chemicals, for combating antibiotic resistance and for programmes to reduce infections in hospitals and care homes.

We also help to combat infectious and non-communicable diseases. By monitoring addictions and non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disorders we make data in these fields available to specialists and the public which can be used to identify trends and derive effective responses. We are further responsible for regulating university and non-university medical and healthcare professions; and we promote and pursue health interests and issues at the international level.

You’ll find concrete examples of our various commitments at the FOPH to promoting and maintaining public health in our Facts and figures 2025 document.

Documents

Facts + Figures 2025 (in German) (PDF, 4 MB, 19.05.2025)

Last modification 22.05.2025