Transnational healthcare as process: multiplicity and directionality in the engagements with healthcare among Polish migrants in the UK

Abstract

Drawing on a mix-methods study comprised of an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, this article presents findings about the complexity and development in time of health service use by Polish migrants living in the United Kingdom. The article contributes to the analysis of transnational healthcare practices by operationalising a framework that considers service access within and beyond national borders, and between private and public sectors. By categorising engagements with healthcare providers based on their occurrence in time it argues for an understanding of transnational healthcare as a process. It finds that Polish migrants manage their health by accessing a variety of different providers. This complexity is also reflected in the multiple ways in which access to services with regards to specific health issues unfolds in time. By focusing the analysis on specific health issues rather than individuals the article finds that multiple ways to access healthcare services coexist for the same participant, who does not necessarily move towards particular healthcare providers unitarily, but adopts ad hoc solutions on the basis of their experiences within specific medical areas. Understanding migrants' patterns of accessing healthcare can contribute to more effective policy solutions supporting migrants in the UK today.

Diagnostic testing: therapeutic mobilities, social fields, and medical encounters in the transnational healthcare practices of Polish migrants in the UK

“…Movement within transnational social fields changes direction and is possibly circular ( Levitt and Glick-Schiller, 2004 ). This matches our findings which show that migrants move with test results not necessarily away from the national healthcare system in which they are originally embedded ( Troccoli et al., 2021 , Bochaton, 2015 , Krause, 2008 ).…”

“…Returning to the country of origin to access medical services is common to other Europeans living in the U.K. ( Moreh, McGhee, and Vlachantoni, 2018 ) and has been found for Poles in several of EU countries ( Mathijsen, 2019 , Migge and Gilmartin, 2011 , Main, 2014 ). By moving from Poland to the U.K., Poles shift between state-funded health systems and lose access to public services in Poland, while becoming entitled to the use of the National Health Service (NHS) in the U.K.. Poles access most of the services in Poland within the private healthcare sector ( Troccoli et al., 2021 ), thus they seek healthcare “on their own initiative” outside the EU institutional routes ( Legido-Quigley et al., 2011 ). This reflects both the loss of entitlements to public healthcare and the presence of a developed private healthcare market in Poland to which Poles are habituated, not least for its degree of integration with the public system ( Sowada et al., 2019 ).…”

Transnational Healthcare Preferences Among EU Nationals in the UK: A Qualitative Assessment

“…Several studies have identified similar issues in the UK context (Ehata and Seeleib-Kaiser, 2017;Goodwin et al, 2013;Guma, 2018;Osipovič, 2013;Sime, 2014;Troccoli et al, 2021). Their findings show that knowledge gaps and language barriers hinder EU migrants' access to medical services, leading to negative subjective perceptions and attitudes towards the quality of healthcare in the UK and therefore a preference for medical treatment in the countries of origin (Ehata and Seeleib-Kaiser, 2017;Goodwin et al, 2013;Sime, 2014).…”

Economic growth and labour market in the European Union: lessons from COVID-19

“…The danger of the pandemic has forced governments in numerous countries to implement unprecedented measures that significantly limit economic activity (Pardal et al, 2020;Kufel, 2020). During the different phases of the pandemic, many countries either stopped or moved to remote working for nonessential economic activities to avoid the collapse of national health systems (Chauhan et al, 2020;Troccoli et al, 2021;Larsen & Schaeffer, 2021;Negură et al, 2021, Caplanova et al, 2021b, Carlotti, 2021. Conse-quently, the pandemic affected global economic growth and caused widespread job layoffs (Salman, 2021;Kim, 2022;Gavurova et al, 2020b;Stefancik et al, 2021;Vorobeva & Dana, 2021), leading to an increase in unemployment (Barbieri Góes & Gallo, 2021;Su et al, 2021;Svabova et al, 2021), adverse effects on global trade (Espitia et al, 2021;Vidya & Prabheesh, 2020) as well as the tourism and travel sectors (Zhang et al, 2021a;Duro et al, 2021) and reductions in the global flows of foreign direct investments (Giofré, 2021;Kiruba & Vasantha, 2021).…”