A Qualitative Evaluation of a Health Access Card for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in a City in Northern England

Malcolm Moffat (), Suzanne Nicholson, Joanne Darke, Melissa Brown, Stephen Minto, Sarah Sowden and Judith Rankin
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Malcolm Moffat: Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4AX, UK
Suzanne Nicholson: Newcastle City Council, Public Health Team, Civic Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8QH, UK
Joanne Darke: UK Health Security Agency North East, Health Protection Team, Civic Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8QH, UK
Melissa Brown: Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4AX, UK
Stephen Minto: Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, One-to-One Centre Shiremoor, Brenkley Avenue, Shiremoor, Newcastle upon Tyne NE27 0PR, UK
Sarah Sowden: Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4AX, UK
Judith Rankin: Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4AX, UK

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: Refugees and asylum seekers residing in the UK face multiple barriers to accessing healthcare. A Health Access Card information resource was launched in Newcastle upon Tyne in 2019 by Newcastle City Council, intended to guide refugees and asylum seekers living in the city, and the professional organisations that support them, to appropriate healthcare services provided locally. The aim of this qualitative evaluation was to explore service user and professional experiences of healthcare access and utilisation in Newcastle and perspectives on the Health Access Card . Eleven semi-structured interviews took place between February 2020 and March 2021. Participants provided diverse and compelling accounts of healthcare experiences and described cultural, financial and institutional barriers to care. Opportunities to improve healthcare access for these population groups included offering more bespoke support, additional language support, delivering training and education to healthcare professionals and reviewing the local support landscape to maximise the impact of collaboration and cross-sector working. Opportunities to improve the Health Access Card were also described, and these included providing translated versions and exploring the possibility of developing an accompanying digital resource.

Keywords: refugee; asylum seeker; health access; health information; intervention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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