Migrant Workers
Public Health Implications
in and for Wales
Peter A Boyle, Public Health Specialist
[email protected]
Scope of session
• Definitions and scale
• Health dimensions:
Personal health
Public health issues affecting MWs
Public health issues arising from MWs
• Current work and ‘challenges’
Definitions & scale
• “An individual who arrives in the host
country either with a job to go to or with
the intention of finding one”.
• Usually taken to include accompanying
family members.
• Major variations in nature & extent across
Wales.
• No authoritative source of data.
Initial potential approaches
discussed with stakeholders:
• Do the health and social care needs of migrant
workers require any additional or different action
on the part of the Welsh Assembly
Government and public authorities in Wales?
• Do the health needs of migrant workers require
any additional or different action on the part of
health care providers?
• Do the health needs of migrant workers require
any additional or different action on the part of
health care commissioners?
Defining the ‘Public Health’ issue
Agreed ‘research question’:
From the information currently available
regarding the range, placement and
origin of migrant workers in Wales, is
there any evidence that LHBs need to
commission anything different than
that commissioned for their general
population?
Personal health
• “Issues affecting the workers themselves
or their families in respect of heightened
health risks compared to the overall local
population or to barriers they may have in
accessing health care.”
• Increased risk factors
• Access issues
• Locus of responsibility
“Public Health” issues:
1: Affecting Migrant Workers
• Nature of work placements available.
• Employment practices and Health &
Safety.
• Impact of ‘Determinants of Health’
Public Health issues:
2: Arising from Migrant Working
• Healthcare issues present in the home
countries which could have an impact on
public health in Wales.
• Potential risk to health of public if
regulation of vulnerable industries is
weakened.
• Impact on PH surveillance activity.
Current focus of NPHS work
• Welsh Assembly Government’s
‘Selected Minorities Group’.
• Research and analysis of experience elsewhere
in UK and Eire.
• Timescales of current Wales-wide initiatives.
• Summary of NPHS and Public Health
‘Challenges’.