HEALTH INEQUALITIES: GREENS SET OUT HOW TO CLOSE THE GAP
Ahead of today's Scottish Parliament debate on health inequalities, Scottish Green MSPs are outlining proposals to tackle the problem.
People in the most deprived areas of Scotland are more likely to suffer from poor health and die earlier compared with people in affluent areas.
Today the Green MSPs have published a new briefing paper on health inequalities, which calls for:
-Incomes to be raised through policies such as a £10 minimum wage
-Legislation to bring in Health Inequality Impact Assessments (HIIA) for all significant government policies
-The creation of a Healthy Challenge Fund to empower communities in the same way as the hugely successful Climate Challenge Fund
Alison Johnstone, Scottish Green MSP for Lothian, said:
"Successive governments have attempted to reduce health inequality by trying to change people’s behaviour, but this has made little tangible difference. The most important things which affect our health include income, access to health and social services, good quality jobs and the quality of our environment.
"Given the wide range of factors influencing our health, we should be looking at how all major government decisions affect health inequality. And we should be supporting a community-led approach so that particular local health challenges can be tackled through projects designed and run by the community."
Scottish Green MSPs report on health inequalities