Understanding how Eastern European migrants use and experience UK health services: a systematic scoping review

Phung, Viet-Hai; Asghar, Zahid; Matiti, Milika; Siriwardena, A Niroshan

doi:10.1186/s12913-020-4987-z

Cited by 14 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The South Asian migrants’ experiences of accessing health care services in Australia involve a complex interplay of factors resulting in mistrust of the quality of health care services that mostly originated at the level of systems. This is consistent with experiences of multiple barriers reported in other studies [ 9 , 10 , 13 , 20 , 54 – 58 ]. Participants shared their disappointment in long waiting periods to receive treatment, experiences of poor quality of care, financial burdens to cover the cost of health care services and discriminatory behaviour of health professionals while accessing health services in Australia.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

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Too long to wait: South Asian migrants’ experiences of accessing health care in Australia

et al. 2021

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Background Migrants settling in a new country experience multiple complexities in navigating health care systems and adapting to a new way of life in the host country. In South Asia, migrating to another country for better life opportunities has been an ongoing trend and migration to Australia has significantly increased in recent years. Lower utilisation of health services and higher risks of chronic diseases among South Asian migrants poses a continuing challenge for the Australian health care system and little is known about why this demographic group does not access health services at the same rate. This study aimed to explore factors influencing access to health care by South Asian migrants in Australia. Methods Using a mixed-method design, we conducted 62 online survey and 14 in-depth interviews with participants from four South Asian countries: Nepal, India, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka. Participants were recruited using a purposive snowball sampling approach following a standard ethical approval process. Survey data were analysed descriptively in SPSS and interview data were recorded, transcribed, and analysed thematically. Results South Asian migrants experienced various complexities while accessing health services in Australia. The findings of this study highlighted a number of negative factors influencing their experiences of accessing health care: long waiting times for public health care, the expense of private health care, and communication problems due to socio-cultural differences. South Asian migrants also expressed their concern for a greater investment of resources into public health care to enable them to access quality and affordable care in these settings. Conclusions Given limited evidence available to help understand factors leading to the lower utilisation of health care and higher risks of chronic diseases among South Asian migrants, this study plays an important role in highlighting social, cultural, financial, and institutional factors that are critical to designing appropriate health-care strategies. This study recommends incorporating a collaborative and culturally competent model of care to increase access to health care and thereby help reduce existing disparities in health outcomes among South Asian migrant populations.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Lower access to health care is a major challenge in addressing disparities in health outcomes globally [1,3,5,6]. Australia reported lower utilisation of services and higher risks of chronic diseases among migrant populations [7][8][9][10]. A similar trend is reported in Canada [2,3], USA [3], and New Zealand [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Too long to wait: South Asian migrants’ experiences of accessing health care in Australia

et al. 2021

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“…The South Asian migrants' experiences of accessing health services in Australia involve a complex interplay of factors, resulting in the mistrust to the quality of services that mostly originated from the system levels. Consistent with the experiences of multiple barriers reported in other studies (9,10,13,20,(52)(53)(54)(55)(56). Participants shared their disappointment about the long waiting period to receive treatment, experiences of poor quality of care, nancial burden to cover the cost of services and discriminatory behaviour of the health professionals while accessing health services in Australia.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

“…On the other hand, the migrant populations are struggling to navigate the health systems to access information and services (24,25). As a result, the health service utilization among the migrant population remains a challenge for the health system (9,10,(25)(26)(27).…”

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confidence: 99%

Too Long to Wait: South Asian Migrants’ Experiences of Accessing Health Services in Australia

Adhikari

Kaphle

Dhakal

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background: Migrants settling in a new country experience multiple complexity to navigate health systems and ways of living. In South Asia, migrating to developed countries for better life opportunities has been the ongoing trend and migration to Australia has significantly increased in recent years. The lower utilisation services and higher risks of chronic diseases among South Asian migrants has been an ongoing challenge for the health system to tackle and little is known why these groups of population do not access services. This study aimed to explore the factors influencing experiences of accessing health services by South Asian migrants in Australia. Methods: Using mixed method design, 62 online surveys and 14 in-depth interviews were conducted with participants from four countries of South Asia - Nepal, India, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka. Participants were recruited using a purposive snowball sampling approach following the standard ethical process. Survey data were analysed descriptively in SPSS to derive relationships between variables. Interview data were recorded, transcribed, and analysed thematically. Results: South Asian migrants experienced various complexities while accessing health services in Australia. Experiences of accessing health services highlighted a number of factors; long waiting periods to access public health services, expensive nature of private health services and communication problems due to socio-cultural differences. While these migrants have comparatively better experiences about the services in Australia than in their home country, they have expectations for affordable, timely, respectful, and culturally friendly services. South Asian migrants shared the possibility of making services accessible to them by investing more resources in the health sectors, so they can receive the expected quality of care in public settings. Conclusions: Limited evidence is available to understand the factors leading to lower utilisation of services and higher risks of chronic diseases among South Asian migrants. So, this study highlighted numbers of social, cultural, financial, and institutional factors that are critical to design appropriate health service strategies. This study recommended incorporating a collaborative and culturally competent model of care to increase access to services which can further help to reduce existing disparities in health outcomes among migrant populations.

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“…They reveal how specific experiences with the public health sector in the host country can lead to perseverance with treatments within it or to change which often involves access to transnational services. Initial healthcare experiences in the UK are shaped by the various difficulties faced by migrants from Eastern European countries when accessing British healthcare services (Phung et al 2020); we know, for instance, how a considerable proportion of Polish migrants in the UK report limited access to services (Nartowski 2018). Singular engagements reveal the at times impromptu nature of transnational engagements that result from travel to the country of origin in itself.…”

Section: Transnational Healthcare Trajectoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Troccoli

Moreh

McGhee

et al. 2021

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

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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.

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Understanding how Eastern European migrants use and experience UK health services: a systematic scoping review

Cited by 14 publications

References 31 publications

Too long to wait: South Asian migrants’ experiences of accessing health care in Australia

Too long to wait: South Asian migrants’ experiences of accessing health care in Australia

Too Long to Wait: South Asian Migrants’ Experiences of Accessing Health Services in Australia

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

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