“Pursuit of quality and efficiency; fulfillment of social responsibility” and “do justice; love mercy” are the priorities of the Department of Health’s (DOH) organizational culture and policy goals. After getting the ISO 9001:2008 certification in 2012, the DOH then wrote a sustainability and social responsibility report, with which it obtains another international accreditation today (January 24), hence becoming a pioneer among all central ministries and departments. The DOH is also the first government agency to have completed and promulgated the social responsibility report. 

Releasing a social responsibility report has recently become a global trend, as a response to the call from the 2002 UN World Summit on Sustainable Development’s resolutions, which encouraged the spontaneous reporting of information relating to open environmental protection activities and social performance, and aimed at the overall improvement of environmental and social quality. In other words, governments and corporations are not only committed to the pursuit of sustainable development in economy, but also concerned with the conservation of environmental quality, the improvement of the living quality and the harmonic prosperity of employees, families, communities and local societies. Statistics show that about 5,000 corporations worldwide have released their social responsibility reports, and nearly 100 large corporations in Taiwan have also disclosed CSR reports in succession. 

This time the DOH has been a pioneer among all government units in compiling the sustainability and social responsibility report according to the G3.1 Guidelines of 2011 by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The content of the report covers the DOH’s (including all of its subsidiaries such as Bureau of National Health Insurance, Food and Drug Administration, Center for Disease Control, Bureau of Health Promotion, Committee on Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy, etc.) major activities on the economic, environmental and social levels and their execution performances. The ten chapters of the report include Minister’s Message, Organization Overview, Identification of and Communication with Stakeholders, Manpower Development and Employee Care, Business and Supplier Management, Environmental Protection, Development of Health Care System, Maintenance and Promotion of National Health, Care for the Disadvantaged and Social Care, covering the period from January 2011 to December 2012. Apart from presenting the results of the administration in these two years, future administrative key points are also planned and formulated based on the social, economic and environmental perspectives of public concern. The report has passed the international accrediting company’s examination and will be officially published for public review within one month. The DOH-affiliated hospitals will also be releasing their social responsibility reports this year, expecting to lead more hospitals into this initiative, so that society can become more harmonious, people can be healthier, and the nation can go through a sustainable development. 

It is in the nature of health care to benefit the nation and the people; the DOH will ensure that its team works more systematically to meet its obligations towards the general public by releasing the sustainability and social responsibility report and understands the public opinion. The DOH will review its mission and vision from a social perspective and lead health- and pharmaceutical-related organizations in the care of and devotion to such issues as environmental protection, human rights, labor affairs, social justice, care for the disadvantaged, etc., and in spontaneously disclosing information as an initiative to show its social responsibility.