February/March 2010 (vol. 06/5)

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International OH systems, Part 2

Part 2: occupational health delivery in the Netherlands

Summary:

In the second in a series of articles exploring different national occupational health systems, Carel Hulshof and Monique Frings- Dresen explain how OH is coordinated and delivered in the Netherlands, and the changes that are now emerging to ensure a modern, evidence- based approach to OH provision.

THE Netherlands has a working population of about 7 million employees served by a near-comprehensive system of occupational health delivery. As part of the Working Conditions Act of 1994, the Dutch government passed legislation that required all employers to contract certified multidisciplinary occupational health services (OHSs) to assist them with occupational health and safety and with sickness absence management.

Carel TJ Hulshof is an occupational physician and associate professor at the Coronel Institute of Occupational Health, at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is also the coordinator of the practice guideline programme of the Netherlands Society of Occupational Medicine and chair of the ICOH Scientific Committee on Health Service Research and Evaluation in Occupational Health.

Monique HW Frings-Dresen is a professor in occupational health and diseases and a principal investigator at the Coronel Institute of Occupational Health. She is the Dutch National Secretary of the ICOH and a member of various ICOH Scientific Committees.

Author: Hulshof C, Frings-Dresen M

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Occupational Health at Work February/March 2010 (vol. 06/5) pp19-23

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