The health care experiences of British pensioners migrating to Spain: A qualitative study
Section snippets
Background
The increasing mobility of people within the European Union has stimulated growing interest in how they obtain health care. Although certain rights to care from statutory health systems in another Member State have existed since the earliest days of the European Economic Community, initially covering certain cross border workers, in 1971 all European citizens achieved the right to care should they fall ill while abroad and, where authorised by their funder, to obtain non-urgent care abroad.
Participants
Interviewees were sampled purposively to include a range of older adults who are British, had been living in Spain for at least three months a year, spread across different locations and approximately equal numbers of men and women. We continued to carry out interviews until we reached the point of data saturation, whereby we had enough data to enable an in-depth explanation of the emerging areas of interest. For example, at a late stage of the research it was considered important to explore
Structural factors influencing the health care experience
Pensioners identified a range of ‘structural factors’ that shaped experiences, which broadly related to physical access to staff and services as well as attributes of the settings. Access to services can be considered both a structural and an organisational factor. We discuss access in more detail in this section but we also acknowledge that the way in which services are organised has an influence on access to health care.
Importantly, assessments were frequently made through explicit or
Discussion
These findings concerning the health care experience of British migrants retiring to Spain have extended and modified our understanding of this group in several ways. First, previous research on the health care experience of this group is sparse and most has focussed on its negative impacts [21], [22], [23], apart from limited survey findings which suggest that, when asked directly, pensioners agree that the Spanish health care system is very good [12], [30]. This paper unpacks the reasons for
Funding
The Economic and Social Research Council [PTA-031-2006-00373] funded the work. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the funder.
Contributors
HLQ conducted the interviews. HLQ, JG, EN analysed the data. HLQ drafted the paper; MM, JG, EN and DlP contributed to the subsequent drafts and final version. HLQ is guarantor for the work.
Ethical approval
The research was approved by the Ethics Committee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. All participants were informed about the content of the study and its likely outcomes and were informed of their right to refuse to answer any question which they did not wish to answer. A consent form provided information on the research, including the confidentiality and anonymity of interviewees’ responses. All read the information sheet, signed the consent form and gave written consent
Conflict of interest
We are not aware of any relationships or support which might be perceived as conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
We thank Rosemary Quigley for her invaluable contributions to the study. We also thank all the interviewees in the study who took time to generously share their experiences.
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