SP politician calls for strategy for immigrant health

Yoga.Photo: pixabay.com

The so-called red-green coalition in 2013 launched a four-year strategy for immigrant health. Member of the Centre Party (SP), Aisha Naz Bhatti, fear that the Government will not follow up on it.

– The current Government has not submitted any plans to continue this strategy.

It is regrettable. Healthy citizens means more people working and contributing to wealth creation, Bhatti said.

She notes that the incidence of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are many times higher in parts of the immigrant population than for other groups.

– More than 25 percent of women from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, who are resident in Norway, have type 2 diabetes.

Nearly 90 percent of women of Pakistani origin are at risk. It is not only a lifestyle thing, but also genetic dispositions, says the SP politician from Oslo.

She believes language and cultural barriers make it difficult for this group to avail themselves of public health, which implies targeted measures through a new and improved plan.

State Secretary Lisbeth Normann says that the Directorate of Health is evaluating the strategy and that the Government will await the outcome of this before it is decided whether a new plan must be prepared.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today