The Healthcare and Related Professions Division helps ensure the provision of adequate basic healthcare – accessible to all, interprofessional and high quality.
To achieve this, the department works on the following topics:
The ongoing development of healthcare, particularly for people in vulnerable situations
To this end, the division works with the cantons and other stakeholders to promote cooperation between all healthcare professionals and foster the development of new outpatient care models. In this connection the division engages with topics such as palliative care, dementia and psychiatric care.
Securing skilled personnel and promoting high-quality education and training
The division contributes to ensuring that the supply of well-qualified healthcare professionals is sufficient in the long term. It achieves this, among other things, by implementing the Nursing initiative (Art. 117b of the Federal Constitution) approved by the Swiss people on 28 November 2021.
For example, it works to increase the number of people gaining professional qualifications (implementing the legislation promoting training and education) and helps improve working conditions so that nurses remain in the profession for longer (drafting federal legislation on working conditions in nursing). The division also helps ensure that the basic and continuing education and training of healthcare professionals is of high quality, now and going forward. In this context, it supports the ongoing development of professional profiles and the necessary legal bases.
The legal bases of the division’s work are
- the Medical Professions Act (MedBG/LPMéd),
- the Psychology Professions Act (PsyG/LPsy) and
- the Healthcare Professions Act (GesBG/LPSan).
Art. 117a of the Federal Constitution also recognises the importance of primary medical care in the context of the healthcare system.
Equal opportunities in healthcare
The division promotes equal access to prevention and care services and the improvement of the quality of healthcare. It does so by providing the various stakeholders with basic information and platforms for exchange and by contributing to the development of new solutions. This way it supports the various stakeholders in their active commitment to promoting equal health opportunities and the health literacy of disadvantaged population groups.
Promoting the digitalisation of enforcement processes, the ongoing development of registers and easy access to health data
Together with the Federal Statistical Office FSO, the division ensures that the monitoring systems necessary for the ongoing development of the evidence base for health policy are in place. It supports the process of digital transformation in the healthcare system through register harmonisation, and is creating the framework for the development of a data room for health-related research.
Salome von Greyerz
Head of Healthcare and Related Professions Division
Last modification 09.01.2024