Review: General Practitioners at the Deep End: The Experience and Views of General Practitioners Working in the Most Severely Deprived Areas of Scotland

Abstract

GENERAL PRACTITIONERS AT THE DEEP END: THE EXPERIENCE AND VIEWS OF GENERAL PRACTITIONERS WORKING IN THE MOST SEVERELY DEPRIVED AREAS OF SCOTLAND GRAHAM WATT Occas Pap R Coll Gen Pract 2012 May; (89): i–viii, 1–40 GPs at the Deep End, conceived of by academic and community GPs as a method of addressing the 40-year challenge of the inverse care law, acknowledged that the way forward for doctors practising in the most deprived and challenging social situations should come from the doctors themselves. The Deep End framework respected the GPs in those communities by putting them front and centre with academics and health service personnel acting as consultants to the process. The resulting Occasional Paper is an authentic and inspiring work that serves as a foundation for organising all of general practice, not just practices in communities which are most at risk. While each of the short chapters of the report merit reading and discussing, a few ideas stood out for me. We need to be continually reminded that general practice, at its heart, is about relationships built over time that require commitment and openness on the part of both doctor and patient. That long journey is …