The health strategy recognises that, important though it is, health service access is just one of the determinants of health status and that efforts to improve access must take place against the background of health supporting public policies in other areas. That is the reason it makes a commitment to the introduction of health impact assessment as part of the public policy development process and will seek to ensure the statements of strategy and business plans of all relevant Departments will incorporate an explicit commitment to sustaining and improving health status.