For the first time in a while I picked up the BJGP with some excitement. Two of my favourite authors were headlining. And they didn't disappoint. Both Julian Tudor Hart1 and Iona Heath2 struck right at the core of the value system that brought me into medicine and general practice in particular. How wonderful to see the politicisation of the journal in this way. I don't mean in the way the magazines do it, full of GPs moaning about how hard done by they are, but in a way that challenges the philosophy and consequences of current political approaches to the health service. Now let us start a proper debate about the direction we are being taken in by the new contract, the choice agenda, payment by results, etc. What will be their effect on inequalities? How will they influence GP behaviour? Will they make us more patient-centred or less? Should I speak out about the erosion of the GP–patient relationship, or continue to propound the government line? Should I fight from within the system or from the outside? Thank you for a more challenging and subversive journal. Well done.
- © British Journal of General Practice, 2005.
