• University of Edinburgh
• School of Social and Political Studies

Politics and International Relations

• Quick Links
• Login
• Search

 

Office Hours:

Mondays 11.00-13.00

Administrative Posts

Postgraduate Advisor for Politics and International Relations

Programme Director for the PhD and the MSc by Research in Politics

Teaching Posts

Course Organiser for Theory and Practice in Political Research

Course Organiser for Intermediate Inferential Statistics: testing and modelling

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) in Management Sciences (Manchester)
• PhD (Manchester)

Previous Posts

Andy joined the Department in 1997 from the University of Wales, Cardiff, where he was Lecturer in Quantitative Methods at Cardiff Business School (1985-1996). He previously held research posts in the Greater London Association of Community Health Councils (1984-85), the University of Manchester (1979-1984), UMIST (1979) and Stockport Social Services Division (1978-79).

Current Research and Teaching

Currently Andy is a co-investigator on an ESRC-funded project on the European Commission with Prof John Peterson (Edinburgh), Prof Hussein Kassim (UEA), Prof Liesbet Hooghe (North Carolina/Amsterdam), Prof Renaud Dehousse (Paris) and Prof Michael Bauer (Berlin).

He is an expert member of the research team for a European Union-FP7 project called 'Deepening our understanding of quality improvement in Europe' (DUQuE), co-ordinated through the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Andy is a grant holder for the Applied Quantitative Methods Network (AQMeN), an ESRC/SFC jointly funded initiative concerned with developing the quantitative skills of researchers in higher education institutions and the public, voluntary and private sectors in Scotland: www.aqmen.ac.uk.

Andy has membership in the following Politics Research Group: Policy and Governance (formerly Public Policy).  He is also a member of the Political Studies Association and the Council for European Studies.

Andy teaches on the following courses:

Postgraduate Level:

• Theory and Practice of Political Research
• Analysis for Policy
• Multi-level Democracy and Public Policy
  
• Research Skills in the Social Sciences - Data Collection
• Intermediate Inferential Statistics: Testing and Modelling
  
• Statistical Process Control for Service Improvement
  

Undergraduate Level:

• Social and Political Enquiry
• Politics of British Public Services

Recent Publications

Peckham S, Mays N, Hughes D, Sanderson M, Allen P, Prior L, Entwistle V, Thompson A and Davies H (2012).  Devolution and patient choice: policy rhetoric versus experience in practice.  Social Policy & Administration, 46 (2), 199–218.

Entwistle VA, France EF, Wyke S, Jepson R, Hunt K, Ziebland S and Thompson A (2011).  How information about other people's personal experiences can help with healthcare decision-making: A qualitative study. Patient Education and Counseling, 85 (3), e291-e298.

Groene O, Mora N, Thompson A, Saez M, Casas M and Suñol R (2011).  Is the maturity of hospitals' quality improvement systems associated with measures of quality and patient safety?  BMC Health Services Research; 11:344.

Groene O, Klazinga N, Wagner C, Onyebuchi A, Thompson A, Bruneau C and Suñol R (2010).  Investigating organizational quality improvement systems, patient empowerment, organizational culture, professional involvement and the quality of care in European hospitals: the 'Deepening our Understanding of Quality Improvement in Europe (DUQuE)' project.  BMC Health Services Research; 10:281.

Thompson AGH and France EF (2010).  One stop or full stop? The continuing challenges for researchers despite the new streamlined NHS research governance process.  BMC Health Services Research; 10:124.

Groene O, Mora N, Thompson A, Saez M, Casas M and Suñol R (2011).  Is the maturity of hospitals' quality improvement systems associated with measures of quality and patient safety?  BMC Health Services Research; 11:344.

Groene O, Klazinga N, Wagner C, Onyebuchi A, Thompson A, Bruneau C and Suñol R (2010).  Investigating organizational quality improvement systems, patient empowerment, organizational culture, professional involvement and the quality of care in European hospitals: the 'Deepening our Understanding of Quality Improvement in Europe (DUQuE)' project.  BMC Health Services Research; 10:281.

Thompson AGH and France EF (2010).  One stop or full stop? The continuing challenges for researchers despite the new streamlined NHS research governance process.  BMC Health Services Research; 10:124.

Suñol R,Vallejo P, Thompson A, Lombarts MJMH, Shaw CD and Klazinga N (2009). Impact of quality strategies on hospital outputs. Quality and Safety in Health Care;18, i62-i68. http://qshc.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/18/Suppl_1/i62?etoc.

Groene O, Lombarts MJMH, Klazinga N, Alonso J, Thompson A and Suñol R (2009). Is patient-centredness in European hospitals related to existing quality improvement strategies: analysis of a cross sectional survey (MARQuIS Study). Quality and Safety in Health Care, 18, i44-i50. http://qshc.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/18/Suppl_1/i44?etoc.

R Suñol, P Vallejo, O Groene, G Escaramis, A Thompson, B Kutryba, and P Garel (2009). Implementation of patient safety strategies in European hospitals. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 18, i57-i61. http://qshc.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/18/Suppl_1/i57?etoc.

Thompson AGH (2007). The meaning of patient involvement and participation in health care consultations: a taxonomy. Social Science and Medicine. 64 (6), 1297–1310. 

Collins S, Britten N, Ruusuvuori J and Thompson A (eds) (2007). Patient participation in health care consultations. Open University Press.

Jepson R, Hewison J, Thompson A and Weller D (2007). Patient perspectives on information and choice in cancer screening: a qualitative study in the UK. Social Science and Medicine. 65, 890-899.

Huby G, Stewart J, Thompson A, Tierney A (2007). Capturing the concealed: methodological issues in the study of older patients’ participation in decision-making about dicharge after acute hospitalisation. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 21 (1), 55-67.

Bikker A and Thompson AGH (2006).Predicting and comparing patient satisfaction in four different modes of health care across a nation. Social Science and Medicine, 63 (6), 1671-1683. Q

Quintana JM, Gonzalez N, Bilbao A, Aizpuru F, Escobar A, Esteban C, San Sebastian JA, de la Sierra E and Thompson A (2006). Predictors of patient satisfaction with hospital health care. BMC Health Services Research, 6:102 (30pp) (doi:10.1186/1472-6963-6-102).

Jepson RG, Hewison J, Thompson A, Weller D (2005). How should we measure informed choice? The case of cancer screening. Journal of Medical Ethics, 31, 192-196.

González N, Quintana JM, Bilbao A, Escobar A, Aizpuru F, Thompson A, Esteban C, San Sebastián JA and de la Sierra E (2005). Development and validation of an in-patient satisfaction questionnaire. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 17 (6), 465-472.

Thompson AGH (2004). Moving beyond the rhetoric of citizen involvement: strategies for enablement. Eurohealth, 9 (4), 5-8.

West RR, McNabb R, Thompson AGH, Sheldon TA and Grimley Evans J (2003). Estimating implied rates of discount in healthcare decision-making. Health Technology Assessment, 7 (38), 1-55. http://www.hta.nhsweb.nhs.uk/fullmono/mon738.pdf

Thompson AGH (2003). Questioning practices in health care research: the contribution of social surveys to the creation of knowledge. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 15 (3), 187-188.

Research Interests

His main research interests are in the field of citizenship and public policy, particularly in relation to health services.  This includes the politics of health care, public participation in health care, perception and satisfaction measurement, and quality management.  He also works on the the social justice agenda in relation to widening participation in higher education.  Additionally, he is currently working on measuring the attitudes and beliefs of officials who work in the European Commission.

Publications include a range of articles on these research topics, as well as book chapters on patient involvement in health care consultations, the tension between citizen and consumer metaphors for patients and the measurement of patient satisfaction. Politics teaching focusses on the politics of British public services, as well as methods of research. His post in the subject area is held jointly with one in the Graduate School in Social and Political Science, where he is responsible for the teaching of survey and questionnaire design, descriptive, exploratory and advanced quantitative methods to postgraduate research students.

Since 2000 he has held research awards for the Department of Health on 'Health in Partnership', the Chief Scientist’s Office in the Health Department of the Scottish Executive on 'Shared decision-making in discharge and post-discharge care of elderly patients'. He has also participated in a multi-site NHS project on 'Discounting and Health', a project with the Catalan Government on developing citizen involvement in health services, and a project with the Basque health services developing measures of patient satisfaction. Recently he has been a statistical adviser to an EU research project on cross-border care (MARQuIS), as well as Research Director of a Catalan study of public involvement in health service policy and planning.

He was European Editor of the International Journal for Quality in Health Care for 7 years from 1998 to 2004, and continued as a member of the Editorial Board until 2009. During 2009-2010 he was on sabbatical in Catalonia working with the Avedis Donabedian Research Institute of the Autonomous University of Barcelona on citizen-centred quality in health care.

He recently completed research as a co-investigator on 2 NHS SDO-funded projects on Patient Choice, one concerned with comparative policy across the 4 nations of the UK (with colleagues in the Universities of London (School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), Swansea, Dundee, St Andrews, and Queens, Belfast) and the other focussed on information needs for 5 health conditions (with colleagues in the Universities of Stirling, Dundee, Glasgow and Oxford).

For current research projects, see above.

PhD and MSc by Research Supervision

I would welcome applications from anyone interested in working on one of the following topics:

• Citizens' perceptions of public services
• Meaning of citizen involvement and participation
• Widening participation in higher education
• Effect of public involvement on quality of services
• Civil society impact on public policies

Keywords: 

public policy; citizenship; perception measurement; surveys; statistical analysis; involvement; participation

PhD in Politics; PhD in Social Policy