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Medical tourism's impacts on health worker migration in the Caribbean: five examples and their implications for global justice

Medical tourism is a practice where individuals cross international borders in order to access medical care. This practice can impact the global distribution of health workers by potentially reducing the emigration of health workers from destination countries for medical tourists and affecting the i...

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Autores principales: Snyder, Jeremy, Crooks, Valorie A., Johnston, Rory, Adams, Krystyna, Whitmore, Rebecca
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Co-Action Publishing 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4394164/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25865122
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v8.27348
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author Snyder, Jeremy
Crooks, Valorie A.
Johnston, Rory
Adams, Krystyna
Whitmore, Rebecca
author_facet Snyder, Jeremy
Crooks, Valorie A.
Johnston, Rory
Adams, Krystyna
Whitmore, Rebecca
author_sort Snyder, Jeremy
collection PubMed
description Medical tourism is a practice where individuals cross international borders in order to access medical care. This practice can impact the global distribution of health workers by potentially reducing the emigration of health workers from destination countries for medical tourists and affecting the internal distribution of these workers. Little has been said, however, about the impacts of medical tourism on the immigration of health workers to medical tourism destinations. We discuss five patterns of medical tourism-driven health worker migration to medical tourism destinations: 1) long-term international migration; 2) long-term diasporic migration; 3) long-term migration and ‘black sheep’; 4) short-term migration via time share; and 5) short-term migration via patient-provider dyad. These patterns of health worker migration have repercussions for global justice that include potential negative impacts on the following: 1) health worker training; 2) health worker distributions; 3) local provision of care; and 4) local economies. In order to address these potential negative impacts, policy makers in destination countries should work to ensure that changes in health worker training and licensure aimed at promoting the medical tourism sector are also supportive of the health needs of the domestic population. Policy makers in both source and destination countries should be aware of the effects of medical tourism on health worker flows both into and out of medical tourism destinations and work to ensure that the potential harms of these worker flows to both groups are mitigated.
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spelling pubmed-43941642015-04-16 Medical tourism's impacts on health worker migration in the Caribbean: five examples and their implications for global justice Snyder, Jeremy Crooks, Valorie A. Johnston, Rory Adams, Krystyna Whitmore, Rebecca Glob Health Action Review Article Medical tourism is a practice where individuals cross international borders in order to access medical care. This practice can impact the global distribution of health workers by potentially reducing the emigration of health workers from destination countries for medical tourists and affecting the internal distribution of these workers. Little has been said, however, about the impacts of medical tourism on the immigration of health workers to medical tourism destinations. We discuss five patterns of medical tourism-driven health worker migration to medical tourism destinations: 1) long-term international migration; 2) long-term diasporic migration; 3) long-term migration and ‘black sheep’; 4) short-term migration via time share; and 5) short-term migration via patient-provider dyad. These patterns of health worker migration have repercussions for global justice that include potential negative impacts on the following: 1) health worker training; 2) health worker distributions; 3) local provision of care; and 4) local economies. In order to address these potential negative impacts, policy makers in destination countries should work to ensure that changes in health worker training and licensure aimed at promoting the medical tourism sector are also supportive of the health needs of the domestic population. Policy makers in both source and destination countries should be aware of the effects of medical tourism on health worker flows both into and out of medical tourism destinations and work to ensure that the potential harms of these worker flows to both groups are mitigated. Co-Action Publishing 2015-04-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4394164/ /pubmed/25865122 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v8.27348 Text en © 2015 Jeremy Snyder et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
spellingShingle Review Article
Snyder, Jeremy
Crooks, Valorie A.
Johnston, Rory
Adams, Krystyna
Whitmore, Rebecca
Medical tourism's impacts on health worker migration in the Caribbean: five examples and their implications for global justice
title Medical tourism's impacts on health worker migration in the Caribbean: five examples and their implications for global justice
title_full Medical tourism's impacts on health worker migration in the Caribbean: five examples and their implications for global justice
title_fullStr Medical tourism's impacts on health worker migration in the Caribbean: five examples and their implications for global justice
title_full_unstemmed Medical tourism's impacts on health worker migration in the Caribbean: five examples and their implications for global justice
title_short Medical tourism's impacts on health worker migration in the Caribbean: five examples and their implications for global justice
title_sort medical tourism's impacts on health worker migration in the caribbean: five examples and their implications for global justice
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4394164/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25865122
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v8.27348
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