At the junctures of healthcare: a qualitative study of primary and specialist service use by Polish migrants in England

Citation

Troccoli G, Moreh C, McGhee D & Vlachantoni A (2022) At the junctures of healthcare: a qualitative study of primary and specialist service use by Polish migrants in England. BMC Health Services Research, 22, Art. No.: 1316. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08666-z

Abstract
Polish people are the biggest migrant group in the UK and the scholarship shows that they are attentive to their healthcare needs and seek to fulfil them by using various services both within and outside the British public healthcare system. This article explores the role of junctures within healthcare systems in the connections migrants realize between healthcare systems and sectors. The article argues that in a transnational context, migrants enact these junctures by joining different levels of care within the same sector, between sectors and across national borders. In particular, the article explores how Polish migrants’ healthcare seeking practices within and beyond national borders are enacted given the features, availability and relationship between primary and specialist care for how they are articulated between private and public sectors.

Keywords
transnational healthcare; migration; Primary care; General Practice; Specialist care; United Kingdom; Poland; NHS/National Health Service; culture; private healthcare

Journal
BMC Health Services Research: Volume 22