No, not any more. The Norwegian Directorate of Health made an action plan for preventing and treating chronic kidney disease for 2011 to 2015. It expired, and we have not found a new one. Cancer and diabetes have their own national plans today, and in 2025 the World Health Organization asked countries to bring kidney health into their health strategies.
By the Nyrami editorial teamPublished 7 October 20263 min read
Short answer: Norway has no current national plan or strategy for kidney health. The last plan ran from 2011 to 2015.
In 2011 the Norwegian Directorate of Health (Helsedirektoratet) published an action plan for the prevention and treatment of chronic kidney disease, commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Care Services. The plan ran from 2011 to 2015. It stated that about ten per cent of the adult population has chronic kidney disease, and that diabetes and high blood pressure are among the most important causes.
The plan focused on preventing the disease, finding it early and following it up well. The aim was to prevent serious complications, especially in the heart and blood vessels, and to delay or prevent severe kidney failure.
The plan period is over, and we have not found any new plan or strategy for kidney health from the authorities. LNT, the Norwegian association for kidney patients and transplant recipients, wrote in Dagens Medisin in March 2026 that Norway has no clear national strategy for kidney health.
Specialists have not stood still. The Norwegian Society of Nephrology and the Norwegian College of General Practice have a guide for GPs on chronic kidney disease, last updated in April 2026. But a guide for doctors is not the same as a national plan that sets out who is responsible, what should be achieved and what it will cost.
Several major diseases have their own national plans or strategies, and they are named in the 2027 state budget: the national cancer strategy for 2025 to 2035, the national diabetes plan for 2025 to 2029 and the national brain health strategy for 2026 to 2036. Plans like these set goals, responsibilities and follow-up year by year.
In the 2027 health budget, cancer is mentioned 54 times and diabetes 17. The Norwegian word for kidney does not appear once. See what the budget still means for you in the guide to the 2027 state budget.
National plans and strategies
Cancer
Diabetes
Brain health
Kidney disease
In May 2025 the World Health Assembly, the WHO’s highest body, adopted its first resolution on kidney health. It recognises kidney disease as a growing public health problem and encourages countries to bring kidney health into their national health strategies. Among other things, the resolution calls for more public awareness of kidney health, earlier detection and access to dialysis and transplants for everyone.
Because the disease is common, silent and possible to find early. Around ten per cent of adults in Norway have chronic kidney disease, and at least two in three of them do not know. It rarely causes symptoms before kidney function is greatly reduced. Yet two simple tests at the GP, a blood test and a urine test, can find it early, and treatment can slow it down.
At the end of 2024, 5,517 people in Norway were living with dialysis or a transplanted kidney, according to the Norwegian Renal Registry. And according to forecasts published in The Lancet in 2018, chronic kidney disease may become the fifth leading cause of years of life lost worldwide by 2040.
A plan is about deciding who does what. For example, who should be offered the tests, how the results are followed up, and how people living with the disease get help between check-ups.
If you have diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease or kidney failure in the family, you can ask your GP for the two tests. See How to detect kidney disease. You can also sign the pledge for more people to be offered them.
While the plan is missing, there is a lot you can do yourself. In the Nyrami app you can track test results, blood pressure and fluid, and scan food in the shop with potassium, phosphorus and salt assessed for you. The app is free for iPhone and Android.
Turns the advice into something you can use in the shop and the kitchen: scan food and see potassium, phosphorus and salt assessed for you, and follow your numbers over time. Free on iPhone and Android.
The Norwegian government presented its budget for 2027 on 7 October 2026. We read the 356-page health budget, and the word kidney does not appear once. Here is what still changes for people living with kidney disease: the exemption card threshold, medicines on blue prescription, patient travel, hospitals and a new AI service on Helsenorge.
Most kidney disease is not inherited, but caused by high blood pressure and diabetes, which often run in families. Some kidney diseases are passed on directly, especially polycystic kidney disease and Alport syndrome. If a close relative has kidney disease, you should have your blood pressure, blood and urine checked.
Acute kidney injury often gets completely or almost completely better. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) usually does not go away, but its progress can often be slowed so much that many people never need dialysis. How long people live depends mostly on stage, albumin in the urine, age and the heart. With dialysis or a new kidney, life can still be good.
