Equity in primary health care: the legacy of Julian Tudor Hart and a personal journey he inspired
Felicity Goodyear-Smith A *A Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Auckland, PB 92-19, Auckland, New Zealand.
Australian Journal of Primary Health 29(2) 126-130 https://doi.org/10.1071/PY22081
Submitted: 19 April 2022 Accepted: 21 June 2022 Published: 19 July 2022
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of La Trobe University
Abstract
Dr Julian Tudor Hart inspired me when I worked as a locum general practitioner in the neighbouring village to Glyncorrwg, southern Wales, in 1979. Our conversations helped shape my subsequent career. But it was only years later I learned that Julian was an icon of general practice and author of the famous ‘inverse care law’. Julian was both a truly compassionate dedicated general practitioner in Glyncorrwg, an impoverished Welsh working-class coal-mining village, and an epidemiologist, conducting robust research in partnership with his patients. Patients were co-producers of the research designed to improve their health outcomes. Julian led the way in advocating that first-contact, continuous, comprehensive, and coordinated care for everyone was necessary to achieve equitable health outcomes. He conducted research neither for its own sake nor for his academic advancement. His aim was always to help improve people’s lives. He identified that good medical care was least likely to be available for populations most in need. More than that, he demonstrated throughout his exemplary career how it was possible to work with a socioeconomically disadvantaged community to both discover their health needs and also provide equitable personalised health care to all. His legacy lives on.
Keywords: co-design, general practice, health equity, Julian Tudor Hart, personal narrative, practice-based research, primary health care, socially disadvantaged populations.
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