TY - JOUR T1 - Deprivation, demography, and the distribution of general practice: JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 720 LP - 726 DO - 10.3399/bjgp08X342372 VL - 58 IS - 555 AU - Sheena Asthana AU - Alex Gibson Y1 - 2008/10/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/58/555/720.abstract N2 - It is generally believed that the most deprived populations have the worst access to primary care. Lord Darzi's review of the NHS responds to this conventional wisdom and makes a number of proposals for improving the supply of GP services in deprived communities. This paper argues that these proposals are based on an incomplete understanding of inverse care which underestimates the degree to which, relative to their healthcare needs, older populations experience low availability of primary care. Many deprived practices appear to have a better match between need and supply than practices serving affluent but ageing populations. However, practices serving the oldest and most deprived populations have the worst availability of all. ER -