This Special section of WORK focuses on occupational Health Service (OHS) support to ensure a sustainable work environment in health and welfare workplaces, which are workplaces facing several diverse and at times also conflicting occupational health issues. Workplaces in health and welfare have both internal challenges (such as digitalization, recruitment problems, sick-leave and staff-turnover) and external challenges (pandemics, financial crisis, armed conflicts and terror threats).1–4 In addition, staff at health and welfare services work with a human-centric and relational perspective, while also often having strict legislation to abide by, which adds to the complexity of their work environment, risk exposure and risk of ill-health related to their work. Previous research has shown that intervention strategies used in practical OHS support might be more important than the specific workplace intervention contributing to improved working conditions, health and well-being in hospital settings5 and in workplaces in general.6 These findings might be an important contribution to global healthcare if put into practice. The World Health Organization has defined good working conditions as a cornerstone of future worker retention and recruitment as well as employee performance in healthcare. [. . .]