IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/hepoli/v124y2020i5p519-524.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Moving health professionals as an alternative to moving patients: The contribution of overseas visiting medical specialists to the health system in Malta

Author

Listed:
  • Casha, Annalise
  • Casha, Ramon
  • Azzopardi Muscat, Natasha

Abstract

Cross-border healthcare has become a major policy issue in the past years across the European Union. Professional mobility, as a means of providing specialised health services has not been given sufficient attention in both the research and policy agendas. This paper presents a case study of the contribution made by visiting overseas medical specialists to the health system in Malta. Twenty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted. A grounded theory approach was utilised in view of the limited amount of literature available on the subject. Qualitative content analysis revealed one superordinate theme, being the value of the service, and three further subthemes, which include the quality of the service provided, its longevity and durability, as well as the critical contributions of expatriates. The service is an integral component of the local health service. This study makes an important contribution to the literature on cross-border healthcare. Lessons learnt may be transferable to other small island states and territories. The European Reference Networks being developed at EU level may need to focus more on the benefits that can accrue through short term professional mobility than has been the case to date. The findings also serve to propose several important features that need to be in place to increase the chances of longevity, sustainability, quality and cost effectiveness in cross border health care services.

Suggested Citation

  • Casha, Annalise & Casha, Ramon & Azzopardi Muscat, Natasha, 2020. "Moving health professionals as an alternative to moving patients: The contribution of overseas visiting medical specialists to the health system in Malta," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(5), pages 519-524.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:124:y:2020:i:5:p:519-524
    DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2020.03.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016885102030052X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.healthpol.2020.03.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Azzopardi-Muscat, Natasha & Aluttis, Christoph & Sorensen, Kristine & Pace, Roderick & Brand, Helmut, 2015. "The impact of the EU Directive on patients’ rights and cross border health care in Malta," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(10), pages 1285-1292.
    2. Legido-Quigley, Helena & Glinos, Irene A. & Baeten, Rita & McKee, Martin & Busse, Reinhard, 2012. "Analysing arrangements for cross-border mobility of patients in the European Union: A proposal for a framework," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 27-36.
    3. Brown, Alison & Dickinson, Helen & Kelaher, Margaret, 2018. "Governing the quality and safety of healthcare: A conceptual framework," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 99-107.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tomas Zapata & James Buchan & Natasha Azzopardi‐Muscat, 2021. "The health workforce: Central to an effective response to the COVID‐19 pandemic in the European Region," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(S1), pages 9-13, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Diesenreiter, Carina & Österle, August, 2021. "Patients as EU citizens? The implementation and corporatist stakeholders’ perceptions of the EU cross-border health care directive in Austria," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(11), pages 1498-1505.
    2. Brekke, Kurt R. & Levaggi, Rosella & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2014. "Patient mobility, health care quality and welfare," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 140-157.
    3. Brouwers, Jonas & Cox, Bianca & Van Wilder, Astrid & Claessens, Fien & Bruyneel, Luk & De Ridder, Dirk & Eeckloo, Kristof & Vanhaecht, Kris, 2021. "The future of hospital quality of care policy: A multi-stakeholder discrete choice experiment in Flanders, Belgium," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(12), pages 1565-1573.
    4. Kowalska-Bobko, Iwona & Mokrzycka, Anna & Sagan, Anna & Włodarczyk, W. Cezary & Zabdyr-Jamróz, Michał, 2016. "Implementation of the cross-border healthcare directive in Poland: How not to encourage patients to seek care abroad?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(11), pages 1233-1239.
    5. Camilleri, Carl & Jofre-Bonet, Mireia & Serra-Sastre, Victoria, 2018. "The suitability of a DRG casemix system in the Maltese hospital setting," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(11), pages 1183-1189.
    6. Glinos, Irene A. & Baeten, Rita, 2014. "Dream vs. reality: Seven case-studies on the desirability and feasibility of cross-border hospital collaboration in Europe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 18-24.
    7. Denita Cepiku & Benedetta Marchese & Federico Spandonaro, 2019. "La mobilit? transfrontaliera dei pazienti: un?analisi del fenomeno in Italia," MECOSAN, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2019(112), pages 61-82.
    8. Azzopardi-Muscat, Natasha & Baeten, Rita & Clemens, Timo & Habicht, Triin & Keskimäki, Ilmo & Kowalska-Bobko, Iwona & Sagan, Anna & van Ginneken, Ewout, 2018. "The role of the 2011 patients' rights in cross-border health care directive in shaping seven national health systems: Looking beyond patient mobility," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 279-283.
    9. Lautier, Marc, 2014. "International trade of health services: Global trends and local impact," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 105-113.
    10. De Regge, Melissa & Eeckloo, Kristof, 2020. "Balancing hospital governance: A systematic review of 15 years of empirical research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    11. Schmidt, Andrea E. & Bobek, Julia & Mathis-Edenhofer, Stefan & Schwarz, Tanja & Bachner, Florian, 2022. "Cross-border healthcare collaborations in Europe (2007–2017): Moving towards a European Health Union?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(12), pages 1241-1247.
    12. Perna, Roberta & Cruz-Martínez, Gibrán & Moreno Fuentes, Francisco Javier, 2022. "Patient mobility within national borders. Drivers and politics of cross-border healthcare agreements in the Spanish decentralized system," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(11), pages 1187-1193.
    13. Glinos, Irene A. & Baeten, Rita, 2015. "Reprint of: Dream vs. reality: Seven case-studies on the desirability and feasibility of cross-border hospital collaboration in Europe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 331-337.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:124:y:2020:i:5:p:519-524. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.