TY - JOUR T1 - New arrangements might finally bring the best primary care to those who need it the most JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 381 LP - 381 VL - 56 IS - 526 AU - Richard Smith Y1 - 2006/05/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/56/526/381.abstract N2 - ‘One of the best bits of the NHS is primary care.’ That's my first response when asked by people abroad what I think of the NHS. There is lots of evidence to support the statement, and I doubt that many BJGP readers will dissent. ‘But,’ I would sometimes add, ‘the problem with primary care in Britain is that it generally works best where it's least needed. The most deprived people generally get the poorest services.’ There are of course glorious exceptions — and Julian Tudor Hart, who is upset by what he sees as my Faustian conversion1 — provided one of the most outstanding.But the evidence in primary care to support Julian's inverse care law is overwhelming — what's more the inequalities have been there since the NHS began.2 They have probably worsened. I … ER -