Neil Lunt

University of York · Department of Social Policy and Social Work

Patient mobility is a complex phenomenon, involving both outward and inward flows, and treatments that are more and less complex and where choice may be driven by quality and availability rather than solely cost. Public health systems in high-income and middle-income countries are facing increasing financial pressures given population ageing, a rap...

There has been longstanding international fascination with the British National Health Service since it was established in 1948. The British population itself has offered enduring support for the principles and institutions of public provision. However, coverage of the NHS has typically been uneven in academic and policy debates. There is limited u...

The bilateral agreements signed between South Africa and countries in Southern and Eastern Africa are a rare example of efforts to regulate health-related issues in a world region. As far as we know, there are no comparable bilateral health governance mechanisms in regions elsewhere. Furthermore, the rapidly growing literature on global health gove...

The Household Support Fund is a creature of crises. Initially conceived as a temporary palliative for struggling UK households in 2021 amid the devastating COVID-19 crisis, the Local Authority administered support is now in its fourth wave. Accounting for over £2.5 billion of funding since its introduction, it is a flagship component of the UK Gove...

The global cancer statistics are stark, accounting fornearly 10 million deaths in 2020, around one in six of alldeaths globally. The World Health Organization esti-mates that 70% of these cancer deaths occur in low‐andmiddle‐income countries and cancer will continue to riseas a proportion of deaths in these settings. We mayusefully characterize can...

The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), a sub-regional group within the Caribbean, fosters cooperation and free movement among its Member States. Established in 1981, the agenda of OECS is free movement of labour, economic cooperation, and strengthening of institutions for social and political cooperation to facilitate development of i...

Utilising Abbott’s work on professions and disciplines we trace the broad development of Social Policy in UK universities over the past 50 years. As with all subjects, Social Policy is enmeshed in continuous boundary protection, and at the same time may seek to extend jurisdiction by laying claim to areas and activities undertaken by others. We dra...

The incidence of cancer is on the rise globally. Under particular circumstances, patients are willing to travel abroad for healthcare treatments. We know relatively little however about patients travelling overseas for cancer‐related screening, diagnosis and treatment. Where do patients go, for what treatments, what are their motivations, decision‐...

We report findings of a mixed-method evaluation of Local Area Coordination (LAC) in one English Local Authority – an approach that draws on principles of earlier intervention, and place-, asset- and strengths-based activity. We drew on documentary materials, unstructured observation and qualitative interviews. In total, fifty-five qualitative inter...

Background Family support is internationally recognised as integral to palliative care. However, during end of life care discharge planning from hospital, families report a lack of opportunity to discuss their concerns or contribute their knowledge of the ill family member and consequently feel unheard and unsupported. To counter this experience, w...

Background: Many people move in and out of hospital in the last few weeks of life. These care transitions can be distressing for family members because they signify the deterioration and impending death of their ill relative and forthcoming family bereavement. Whilst there is evidence about psychosocial support for family members providing end-of-...

Background Many people move in and out of hospital in the last few weeks of life. These care transitions can be distressing for family members because they signify the deterioration and impending death of their ill relative and forthcoming family bereavement. Whilst there is evidence about psycho-social support for family members providing end of l...

Local Area Coordination is an approach that emerged during the 1980s and 1990s to support individuals with learning disabilities in rural and metropolitan Western Australia. Offering direct family support, signposting and networking it aimed to improve access to services and promote social inclusion. It leveraged community resources and sought broa...

There is growing interest in the contribution of asset- and strengths-based activities within social and community development. Asset-based approaches focus on people’s and communities’ assets (their capacities, resources and networks) as well as their needs. At an individual level, it entails assessments and conversations emphasising personal and...

Much medical travel scholarship has been driven by a commercial focus whereby private providers pursue a high-value and complex patient market, primarily emanating from the Middle East, North America and Western Europe. This emphasis has led to a framing around ‘medical tourism’, prompting countervailing critiques of the term and the introduction o...

Project funded by ESRC Impact Accelerator Account (Co-Production). Project partners University of York and City of York Council

Transnational medical travel -- the temporary movement by patients across national borders in order to address medical concerns abroad that are unable to be sufficiently met within their countries of residence -- is an important therapeutic coping strategy used by growing proportions of peoples with a diverse range of mobility profiles and intensit...

Much medical travel scholarship has been driven by a commercial focus whereby private providers pursue a high-value and complex patient market, primarily emanating from the Middle East, North America and Western Europe. This emphasis has led to a framing around ‘medical tourism’, prompting countervailing critiques of the term and the introduction o...

Project funded under the ESRC Impact Accelerator Account (Co-Production). Project partners University of York and City of York Council.

The article examines how South Korean civil servants responded to the introduction of pay for performance. Drawing upon 31 in-depth interviews with career civil servants, it identifies what became known as 1/n, a form of ‘discreet resistance’ that emerged and evolved. The analytical framework allows productive resistance to be seen as ebbing and fl...

Aim: The transition from hospital to home for end of life care (eolc) is an emotive time for family members, characterised by growing understanding that their relative is dying, getting things ready for discharge and continuing to provide support in hospital. This study aimed to implement established research evidence to support family members duri...

This report presents the findings of a longitudinal analysis of the ten years of the BMA's 2006 Cohort Study of Medical Graduates, which has been undertaken by an independent team of researchers from the Universities of Sheffield and York. The longitudinal analysis focuses on the career trajectories of the medical graduates over the ten year period...

Introduction: exporting public services Since the early 1990s the purchaser/provider split and marketisation have encouraged state organisations across many OECD countries to look to private sector and not-for-profit providers as potential sources of service provision, with competition for state funds in a ‘mixed economy of welfare’ (Mause, 2009)....

Welfare states globally have been subjected to reform agendas that have stressed economic competitiveness but how has global competition reshaped welfare states in practice? Providing a new cross-national and international narrative, this book captures the complexity of social policy reform process that has taken place over the past 25 years. Drawi...

The aim of this paper is to draw on evidence to identify distinctions within those forms of research which are to significant degrees practitioner engaged. The research review on which this is based took place in the fields of health, social care and social work. We suggest there are different forms of practitioner research, and that using a blanke...

This article analyses an overlooked element of public service marketisation, examining overseas export activity within healthcare and criminal justice. It explores the drivers, strategies, opportunities and risks of such activities, and the differences across policy sector. Focussing on contrasting experiences is an opportunity to understand the co...

This article analyses an overlooked element of public service marketization, examining overseas trade activities within health and criminal justice. It explores the drivers, strategies, opportunities and risks of such activities, and the differences across policy sector. Focusing on contrasting experiences is an opportunity to understand the comple...

It is commonly argued that public support for the welfare state is in long-term decline in the UK. Evidence from the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) is typically cited to support this claim, but it only stretches back to 1983. Few would disagree that the Thatcher years offered an unusual socio-political-economic context, which raises a questi...

Jensen and Tyler (2015) have powerfully argued that 'anti-welfare commonsense', fuelled by negative political and media discourse stressing welfare dependency and deception, has buttressed support for social security reform in recent years. Along with many other academics they point to the hardening of public attitudes towards welfare state provisi...

Introduction A recent national survey of carers found that only half of family carers providing end of life care received the support they needed and this support was less likely to be provided in hospital.¹ Similarly, a study of discharge in older adults found that most family caregivers are not involved in discharge decisions.² Aims This study a...

This paper examines two distinct forms of practitioner research and makes tentative suggestions around what may constitute good practice in their conduct and reporting, and for the genre of practitioner research as a whole. We also explore their potential benefits and limitations within the wider set of research approaches. Discussion is informed p...

The scoping review focuses on medical tourism, whereby consumers elect to travel across borders or to overseas destinations to receive their treatment. Such treatments include: cosmetic and dental surgery; cardio, orthopaedic and bariatric surgery; IVF; and organ and tissue transplantation. The review assesses the emerging focus of research evidenc...

This chapter looks at the responses of three countries to the encouragement of health systems to engage in global markets, and moves beyond how competition is embedded in the welfare state to consider how the welfare state is embedded in competition. The three countries — the UK, Turkey, and South Korea — face similar healthcare pressures but have...

For many reasons numbers are at the heart of medical tourism. From an industry perspective it is essential to establish the scale of medical tourism so as to normalise it and the potential cost-savings so as to promote it. From the perspective of many national governments it is necessary to quantify the process so as to justify investment, chart gr...

The growth of international travel for purposes of medical treatment has been accompanied by increased academic research and analysis. This Handbook explores the emergence of medical travel and patient mobility and the implications for patients and health systems. Bringing together leading scholars and analysts from across the globe, this unprecede...

An understanding of patient mobility, international patients and medical tourism includes supply and demand side considerations. As well as micro-level reports of motivation and satisfaction we must acknowledge broader system-level dynamics. Exploring these may unearth more complex geographies of patient travel. © 2015 by Kerman University of Medic...

With the internationalization of higher education, research settings and researcher backgrounds are becoming increasingly complex, further complicating disciplinary assumptions, traditions and techniques. This article highlights key practical and conceptual issues that arose during planning fieldwork, fieldwork conduct, subsequent analysis and writ...

We set out how we see the agenda arising from developing good practitioner research. We begin by identifying what we mean by practitioner research. We then review what we know about the nature and practice of practitioner research in the UK. We consider how practitioner research is related to the wider category of practice research. We then identif...

The aim of this article is to contribute towards greater theoretical and empirical understanding about medical tourism developments globally. This evidence leads us to examine some widely-held assumptions regarding the size and shape of global medical travel. Our paper examines three central issues: (1) Do published figures and projections 'add-up'...

Background Medical tourism is a growing phenomenon. This review of the literature maps current knowledge and discusses findings with reference to the UK National Health Service (NHS).Methods Databases were systematically searched between September 2011 and March 2012 and 100 papers were selected for review.ResultsThe literature shows specific types...

Evidence on medical tourism, including patient motivation, is increasing. Existing studies have focused on identifying push and pull factors across different types of treatment, for example cosmetic or bariatric surgery, or on groups, such as diaspora patients returning 'home' for treatment. Less attention has been on why individuals travel to spec...

Despite a huge amount of speculation and expectation surrounding medical tourism, hard empirical evidence is only now beginning to emerge. This paper widens the focus of discussion by contrasting two country experiences (UK and Korea) which on the surface illustrate the diversity of medical tourism and little else. However, considered more comparat...

There is a growing global market in healthcare and patients. And while there is a small body of evidence emerging around this phenomenon commonly known as medical tourism there remain significant unanswered policy and research questions which need to be addressed. We outline some of the key issues set against the six key disciplinary preoccupations...

Many public health systems in high- and middle-income countries are under increasing financial pressures as a result of ageing populations, a rise in chronic and non-communicable diseases and shrinking public resources. At the same time the rise in patient mobility and concomitant market in medical tourism provides opportunities for additional inco...

This chapter examines the shift in New Zealand’s discursive articulations of social policy including usage of “welfare” and “welfare state.” Identifying the increased attention to language within social policy analysis, the chapter adopts an historical lens to examine change over the past five decades. It identifies the rise and fall of welfare and...

New Zealand has long been at the forefront of continuous reforms of its economic and social welfare system. Since colonisation by the British in the 19th century, the settler state was a powerful driver of economic development and, later in the century, state intervention emerged across labour markets, health and social assistance, including the es...

The study examined the implications of inward and outward flows of private patients for the NHS across a range of specialties and services. Objectives To generate a comprehensive documentary review; to better understand information, marketing and advertising practices; examine the magnitude and economic and health-related consequences of travel; u...

The rise of medical tourism poses questions for health systems around the world. This article sets the context for what exactly should be considered as medical tourism, charts the rise of the phenomenon, and outlines some of the emerging concerns and opportunities. Medical tourism may impact on both the country to which a person travels for treatme...

Despite increasing reference to medical tourism by politicians and reports in popular media, there remains little understanding of actual size, scope, and effect of inbound and outbound UK patients. Although evidence suggests that a growing number of patients travel to access (and pay for) medical treatment, including UK residents and, equally, tha...

'Medical Tourism' - the phenomenon of people travelling abroad to access medical treatment - has received increasing attention in academic and popular media. This paper reports findings from a study examining effect of inbound and outbound medical tourism on the UK NHS, by estimating volume of medical tourism and associated costs and benefits. A mi...

We have recently completed the most comprehensive research project to date examining the effects of UK medical tourism on the NHS. Research findings currently under review may have some bearing on the debate about the effects of expanding the NHS abroad for UK patients.1 2 Our analysis, which …

It is estimated that over 50,000 individuals from the UK each year elect to fund their own treatment abroad. Such treatments commonly include cosmetic and dental surgery; cardio, orthopaedic and bariatric surgery; IVF treatment; and organ and tissue transplantation. The UK has also experienced inward flows of patients who travel to receive treatmen...

In common with many other OECD states, policy makers in New Zealand have struggled to reduce the numbers of people in receipt of long-term disability benefits. Disability benefits reform is a wide and challenging agenda and remains at the forefront of social security reform within New Zealand. Successive governments have sought to address the rise...

The key arguments of this chapter are as follows: Medical tourism has become increasingly prominent during the last decade and this is in large part a consequence of the way it is marketed through the Internet. Concerns regarding the quality of health information that exists on the Internet have been held for some time. Given that most medical tour...

The authors draw on a case study evaluation of two networked cohorts of practitioner-researchers in a children's services national social work agency in one of the home countries of the United Kingdom. The aim of the present study was to understand the meaning of practitioner research for social work professionals through an exploration of how lang...

The aim of this paper is to examine what we know about the experience and outcomes of networked initiatives aimed at facilitating practitioner research. We outline the roles and significance of practitioner research within social work; review emerging understanding of practitioner research network initiatives; and draw conclusions from a comparativ...

A multidisciplinary international team examines the safety, ethics, and health implications of the emerging global market for health care, and the issues that arise when patients cross borders for medical procedures they cannot afford or access at home, from liposuction to kidney transplants. Risks and Challenges in Medical Tourism: Understanding t...

We draw on a case study evaluation of two networked cohorts of practitioner researchers in a children's services national social work agency in Scotland, one of the four home nations of the UK. We value the contribution of previous reflections on whether practitioner research has or ought to have special methods and on the particular evidence or kn...

The National Health Service (NHS) Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) programme was launched in 2001 as an innovative public-private partnership to address the historical under-investment in local primary care facilities in England. The organisations from the public and private sector that comprise a local LIFT partnership each have their own di...

Purpose – A key driver in the medical tourism phenomenon is the platform provided by the internet for gaining access to healthcare information and advertising. Given the pivotal role of web‐based resources, there are important questions about their role and function including: the availability and types of information provided; information provenan...

Expert Rev. Pharmacoeconomics Outcomes Res. 11(2), 133–136 (2011) “As with all medical treatments, an element of risk can exist to the patient’s health, which is mitigated and outweighed by the benefits resulting from the surgery. Medical tourism adds a new dynamic to this element of risk, owing to the overseas travel involved.” Medical tourism is...

There is growing interest in the contribution of practitioner research towards bodies of knowledge and practice change. A practitioner or group of practitioners may carry out inquiry in order to better understand their own practice and client groups and to assess or improve service effectiveness. There is also increased interest in the place of eth...

• Summary: This article provides a new perspective on mentoring relationships by reflecting on a practice project that involved what we identify as ‘nested mentoring’. The insights emerged from a series of consultations during 2004, followed by developmental work during 2005, and then the project proper, which was funded during 2006—07. • Findings:...

Practitioner research has received growing attention across a number of professional fields, including health, social services and education. Supporting the development of practitioner research raises a series of important political questions addressed by the authors: how should projects and initiatives be sponsored; how are research questions best...

Since the early 1990s, medical tourism, whereby individuals choose to travel across national borders or overseas to receive treatments, has been increasingly recognized in the United States and Asia. This article highlights the emergence of medical tourism in the European context. It examines the drivers for such developments and situates medical t...

An emerging trend is what has become commonly known as ‘Medical Tourism’ where patients travel to overseas destinations for specialised surgical treatments and other forms of medical care. With the rise of more affordable cross-border travel and rapid technological developments these movements are becoming more commonplace. A key driver is the plat...

The review focuses on one growing dimension of health care globalisation - medical tourism, whereby consumers elect to travel across borders or to overseas destinations to receive their treatment. Such treatments include cosmetic and dental surgery; cardio, orthopaedic and bariatric surgery; IVF treatment; and organ and tissue transplantation. The...

Reviews in American History - Volume 25, Number 4, December 1997

An important question concerns the routes by which the Competition State is able to secure ongoing political support, or what is referred to as ‘the battle for hearts and minds’. The tapping of legitimacy vis-à-vis the current Competition State is explored drawing on examples of the UK and New Zealand. Three ‘hyphen concepts’ are outlined: hyphen o...

This article reports what may be the first systematic mapping and review of practitioner research studies in social work. We reflect on the difficulties of identifying such studies and outline the review and mapping processes adopted in the study. The paper categorises the kinds of research undertaken, drawing on a recently developed framework; it...

The research project analysed the role and effectiveness of LIFT via a multi-method study which included semi-structured interviews with policy elites and users, as well as case studies and an exploratory analysis of the financial characteristics of three LIFT Companies. While the team felt that it was able to identify key aspects relating to the a...

In a speech given in Chicago in April 1999, Tony Blair stated, on behalf of third-way social democracy, 'we are all internationalists now, whether we like it or not. We cannot refuse to participate in global markets if we want to prosper. We cannot ignore new political ideas in other countries if we want to innovate ... ' He was surely right in the...