IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v62y2006i5p1103-1114.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Access to rural health services: Research as community action and policy critique

Author

Listed:
  • Panelli, Ruth
  • Gallagher, Lou
  • Kearns, Robin

Abstract

Although access to rural health services has been an enduring focus for a variety of scholars, little has been recorded about the intersection between health service policy, provision and access experiences. This paper identifies how community action can highlight the gaps between policy rhetoric and access experiences. Taking the case of rural New Zealand, we document how a community organisation Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) completed a national survey as a form of community action. This study records rural households' experiences and challenges when accessing both primary and secondary health services. A range of access problems is identified. The study also illustrates how community-based activism concerning health care need not be local or single-service focussed, but can involve a multi-service critique at the national scale. Such work highlights not only the experience but also the complexity and politics of health service access.

Suggested Citation

  • Panelli, Ruth & Gallagher, Lou & Kearns, Robin, 2006. "Access to rural health services: Research as community action and policy critique," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(5), pages 1103-1114, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:62:y:2006:i:5:p:1103-1114
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(05)00389-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Fernández-Mayoralas, Gloria & Rodríguez, Vicente & Rojo, Fermina, 2000. "Health services accessibility among Spanish elderly," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 17-26, January.
    2. Mooney, Cathleen & Zwanziger, Jack & Phibbs, Ciaran S. & Schmitt, Susan, 2000. "Is travel distance a barrier to veterans' use of VA hospitals for medical surgical care?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 50(12), pages 1743-1755, June.
    3. Liu, Liyan & Hader, Joanne & Brossart, Bonnie & White, Robin & Lewis, Steven, 2001. "Impact of rural hospital closures in Saskatchewan, Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 52(12), pages 1793-1804, June.
    4. G Higgs & M L Senior & H C W L Williams, 1998. "Spatial and Temporal Variation of Mortality and Deprivation 1: Widening Health Inequalities," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 30(9), pages 1661-1682, September.
    5. Crampton, Peter & Dowell, Anthony & Woodward, Alistair, 2001. "Third sector primary care for vulnerable populations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 53(11), pages 1491-1502, December.
    6. Mayer, Jonathan D. & Kohlenberg, Elizabeth R. & Sieferman, G. Eric & Rosenblatt, Roger A., 1987. "Patterns of rural hospital closure in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 327-334, January.
    7. Perry, Baker & Gesler, Wil, 2000. "Physical access to primary health care in Andean Bolivia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 50(9), pages 1177-1188, May.
    8. Fougere, Geoff, 2001. "Transforming health sectors: new logics of organizing in the New Zealand health system," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 52(8), pages 1233-1242, April.
    9. Nemet, Gregory F. & Bailey, Adrian J., 2000. "Distance and health care utilization among the rural elderly," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 50(9), pages 1197-1208, May.
    10. Joseph, Alun E. & Hallman, Bonnie C., 1998. "Over the hill and far away: distance as a barrier to the provision of assistance to elderly relatives," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 631-639, March.
    11. James, Amanda M., 1999. "Closing rural hospitals in Saskatchewan: on the road to wellness?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 49(8), pages 1021-1034, October.
    12. Fitzgerald, Ruth, 2004. "The New Zealand health reforms: dividing the labour of care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 331-341, January.
    13. Edelman, Mark & Menz, Brian, 1996. "Selected Comparisons and Implications of a National Rural and Urban Survey on Health Care Access, Demographics and Policy Issues," Staff General Research Papers Archive 5267, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    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. Bobby Macaulay, 2016. "Considering social enterprise involvement in the commissioning of health services in Shetland," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 31(5), pages 650-659, August.
    2. Weinhold, Ines & Gurtner, Sebastian, 2014. "Understanding shortages of sufficient health care in rural areas," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(2), pages 201-214.
    3. Leguizamon, Susane & Christafore, David, 2014. "Racial Differences in Willingness to Pay for Hospital Access," MPRA Paper 55926, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Weinhold, Ines & Gurtner, Sebastian, 2018. "Rural - urban differences in determinants of patient satisfaction with primary care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 76-85.
    5. David Christafore & Susane Leguizamon, 2015. "Willingness to Pay for Hospital Access in Areas with High Concentrations of Blacks," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 45(1), pages 87-104, Spring.
    6. Kvåle, Gro & Torjesen, Dag Olaf, 2021. "Social movements and the contested institutional identity of the hospital," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).

    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. Ge Lin & Diane E Allan & Margaret J Penning, 2002. "Examining Distance Effects on Hospitalizations Using GIS: A Study of Three Health Regions in British Columbia, Canada," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(11), pages 2037-2053, November.
    2. Woorim Kim & Kyu-Tae Han & Seungju Kim, 2021. "Do Patients Residing in Provincial Areas Transport and Spend More on Cancer Treatment in Korea?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-11, September.
    3. Ranković Plazinić, Biljana & Jović, Jadranka, 2018. "Mobility and transport potential of elderly in differently accessible rural areas," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 169-180.
    4. Kajal Lahiri & Guibo Xing, 2002. "An Empirical Analysis of Medicare-eligible Veterans' Demand for Outpatient Health Care Services," Discussion Papers 02-01, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.
    5. Yao, Jing & Murray, Alan T. & Agadjanian, Victor, 2013. "A geographical perspective on access to sexual and reproductive health care for women in rural Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 60-68.
    6. Andrews, Gavin J. & Cutchin, Malcolm & McCracken, Kevin & Phillips, David R. & Wiles, Janine, 2007. "Geographical Gerontology: The constitution of a discipline," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 151-168, July.
    7. Majumder, Amlan, 2014. "Economics of health care utilisation: a study of self-reported morbidity and health seeking patterns in the districts of Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, India," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 110899, December.
    8. Kathleen Cleeren & Lien Lamey & Jan‐Hinrich Meyer & Ko De Ruyter, 2016. "How Business Cycles Affect the Healthcare Sector: A Cross‐country Investigation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(7), pages 787-800, July.
    9. repec:rre:publsh:v:39:y:2009:i:2:p:149-69 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Heather Conde & James Ted McDonald, 2007. "The Health Services Use Among Older Canadians in Rural and Urban Areas," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 178, McMaster University.
    11. Nicholas Ashill & Jayne Krisjanous & Janet Carruthers, 2004. "Antecedents and outcomes of service recovery perfomance in private healthcare: An empirical investigation," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 1(2), pages 57-74, December.
    12. Schoeni, Robert F. & Cho, Tsai-Chin & Choi, HwaJung, 2022. "Close enough? Adult child-to-parent caregiving and residential proximity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    13. Mellow, Jeff & Schlager, Melinda D. & Caplan, Joel M., 2008. "Using GIS to evaluate post-release prisoner services in Newark, New Jersey," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 416-425, September.
    14. José J. Escarce & Kanika Kapur, 2009. "Do patients bypass rural hospitals? Determinants of inpatient hospital choice in rural California," Working Papers 200902, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    15. Murawski, Lisa & Church, Richard L., 2009. "Improving accessibility to rural health services: The maximal covering network improvement problem," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 102-110, June.
    16. Huotari, Tiina & Antikainen, Harri & Keistinen, Timo & Rusanen, Jarmo, 2017. "Accessibility of tertiary hospitals in Finland: A comparison of administrative and normative catchment areas," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 60-67.
    17. Doyle Jr., Joseph J. & Ewer, Steven M. & Wagner, Todd H., 2010. "Returns to physician human capital: Evidence from patients randomized to physician teams," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 866-882, December.
    18. repec:asg:wpaper:1020 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Hefford, Martin & Crampton, Peter & Foley, Jon, 2005. "Reducing health disparities through primary care reform: the New Zealand experiment," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 9-23, April.
    20. Cochran, Abigail L. & Wang, Jueyu & Prunkl, Lauren & Oluyede, Lindsay & Wolfe, Mary & McDonald, Noreen, 2021. "Examining Access to the COVID-19 Vaccine in Centralized and Dispersed Distribution Scenarios," SocArXiv e3sdu, Center for Open Science.
    21. Wang, H. & Guan, H. & Boswell, M., 2018. "Health Seeking Behavior among Rural Left-behind Children: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in China," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 276955, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    22. Liu, Xiaoxiao & Ben Liu, Qianqian, 2024. "Superior medical resources or geographic proximity? The joint effects of regional medical resource disparity, geographic distance, and cultural differences on online medical consultation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 350(C).

    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:socmed:v:62:y:2006:i:5:p:1103-1114. 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 (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    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.