Research article
Health care for immigrants in Europe: Is there still consensus among country experts about principles of good practice? A Delphi study
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* Corresponding author: Walter Devillé w.deville@nivel.nl
1 International and Migrant Health, NIVEL (Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research), Otterstraat 118-124, PO Box 1568, 3500 BN Utrecht & University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Institute of Social Sciences Research, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
2 Etablissement public de santé Maison Blanche, 18 rue Rémy de Gourmont, 75019 Paris, France
3 Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry, Queen Mary University of London, Newham Centre for Mental Health, London, E13 8SP, UK
4 Institute of Health and Society, Université Catholique de Louvain, Clos Chapelle aux Champs 30.05., 1200 Brussels, Belgium
5 Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Rua da Junqueira, 96, 1349-008 Lisbon, Portugal
6 Laziosanità ASP-Public Health Agency for the Lazio Region, Via S. Costanza 53, 00198 Rome, Italy
7 Danish Research Centre for Migration, Ethnicity and Health (MESU), Section for Health Services Research, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, DK-1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
8 Department of Sociology, National School of Public Health, 196 Alexandras Avenue, Athens 11521, Greece
9 Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité-University Medicine Berlin, CCM, Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany
10 National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Department for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, P.O.B. 30, FIN-00271 Helsinki, Finland
11 Agency of Public Health of Barcelona, Pça. Lesseps, 1, 08023 Barcelona, Spain
12 Faculty of Health Sciences at Nyíregyháza, University of Debrecen, Sóstói út 31/B, 4400 Nyíregyháza, Hungary
13 Department of Public Health Sciences, Section of Social Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 76 Stockholm, and Department of Public Health Sciences, Mid Sweden University, SE-851 70 Sundsvall, Sweden
14 Department of Health Management, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, A. Mickevičiaus g. 9, LT 44307, Kaunas, Lithuania
15 Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Social Psychiatry, Lazarettgasse 14A-912, 1090 Vienna, Austria
16 Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Ul. Sobieskiego 9, 02-957 Warsaw, Poland
BMC Public Health 2011, 11:699 doi:10.1186/1471-2458-11-699
Published: 13 September 2011Abstract
Background
European Member States are facing a challenge to provide accessible and effective health care services for immigrants. It remains unclear how best to achieve this and what characterises good practice in increasingly multicultural societies across Europe. This study assessed the views and values of professionals working in different health care contexts and in different European countries as to what constitutes good practice in health care for immigrants.
Methods
A total of 134 experts in 16 EU Member States participated in a three-round Delphi process. The experts represented four different fields: academia, Non-Governmental Organisations, policy-making and health care practice. For each country, the process aimed to produce a national consensus list of the most important factors characterising good practice in health care for migrants.
Results
The scoring procedures resulted in 10 to 16 factors being identified as the most important for each participating country. All 186 factors were aggregated into 9 themes: (1) easy and equal access to health care, (2) empowerment of migrants, (3) culturally sensitive health care services, (4) quality of care, (5) patient/health care provider communication, (6) respect towards migrants, (7) networking in and outside health services, (8) targeted outreach activities, and (9) availability of data about specificities in migrant health care and prevention. Although local political debate, level of immigration and the nature of local health care systems influenced the selection and rating of factors within each country, there was a broad European consensus on most factors. Yet, discordance remained both within countries, e.g. on the need for prioritising cultural differences, and between countries, e.g. on the need for more consistent governance of health care services for immigrants.
Conclusions
Experts across Europe asserted the right to culturally sensitive health care for all immigrants. There is a broad consensus among experts about the major principles of good practice that need to be implemented across Europe. However, there also is some disagreement both within and between countries on specific issues that require further research and debate.