HEALTH-CARE ACCESS AND MOBILITY BETWEEN THE UK AND OTHER EUROPEAN-UNION STATES - AN IMPLEMENTATION SURPLUS

European Union (EU) policy on mobility requires ensuring healthcare ac cess for EU residents who travel between EU states. This case-study in vestigates how this policy has been implemented in respect of EU visit ors to the UK. EU visitors to the UK have similar access to 'immediate ly needed' National Health Service (NHS) healthcare to UK residents. F or non-urgent healthcare, the NHS has official systems to discourage ' medical tourism' and divert such patients to the private sector or to reclaim the costs of NHS hospital treatment for EU visitors. Yet these official systems contrast with the flexibility and liberality of actu al NHS practice towards EU visitors. Research on health policy impleme ntation mostly examines reasons for 'implementation failure'. However, the present study indicates a health policy being implemented more fu lly than policy-makers may have anticipated. In the case of healthcare access for EU visitors to the UK, an implementation surplus is eviden t rather than an implementation deficit. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ire land Ltd.