The Directorate of Health
|
|
The Directorate of Health is a government agency headed by the Medical Director of Health. On 1 May 2011, the Public Health Institute of Iceland was incorporated into the Directorate of Health in accordance with new legislation, Act No. 28/2011*, which entered into force on that day.
(For more details: See News)
The current Medical Director of Health is Geir Gunnlaugsson, MD, PhD, MPH. The Directorate of Health was established in 1760 and the present Medical Director of Health is the 16th holder of the post.
Main functions of the Directorate of Health
According to the new Act the scope of the Directorate of Health was extended to include public health measures and health promotion in addition to its former functions. Among these are:
- To advise the Minister of Welfare and other Government bodies, health professionals and the public on matters concerning health, disease prevention and health promotion.
- To sponsor and organise public health initiatives.
- To promote improvements of health care quality.
- To inspect the health care services and monitor health care workers.
- To monitor prescription medicines and promote their rational use.
- To collect and process data on health and health care services and promote research.
- To handle complaints from health care users.
- To issue licences to practise to certified health care professionals and ensure that their education meets requirements.
Communicable Disease Control
According to Act No. 19/1997 on Health Security and Communicable Diseases, the Chief Epidemiologist for Iceland at the Directorate of Health is responsible for health security and general and public measures against communicable diseases and other threats to health. Other principal responsibilities of the Chief Epidemiologist are:
- To organise and co-ordinate communicable disease control and prevention and immunisations throughout the country, e.g. by publishing guidelines on how epidemics should be handled.
- To maintain a register of communicable diseases in order to monitor their spread by means of collecting diagnostic data from laboratories, hospitals and physicians.
- To keep a register of human use of antimicrobial drugs which may cause resistance to those drugs.
- To promulgate information on the spread of communicable diseases, within Iceland and abroad, to physicians and other health workers.
- To provide advice to physicians and others on communicable disease control.
- To supervise communicable disease prevention, e.g. by means of information and education.
Information in English on this web site
On the menu to the left you can access web pages containing general information on the Directorate of Health and its staff, on Icelandic health statistics, the National Childhood Vaccination Programme, the newsletter EPI-ICE, a few publications and articles on the Icelandic health care system, as well as some statutes of interest available in English.
* Not yet available in English.
Last updated 1 September 2011