General Practice at the Deep End  Professor Graham Watt Watt                     23 November 2022
Channel: Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow
Date: 2022-12-05

Professor Graham Watt
MD FRCGP FRSE FMedSci CBE
Emeritus Professor, General Practice and Primary Care, University of Glasgow

Graham has a long term research interest in health and disease in families which he began at Glyncorrwg and has pursued via the Ladywell Blood Pressure Study in Edinburgh and the MIDSPAN Family Study in the west of Scotland. He also has interests in inequalities in health and health care and in supporting the next generation of academic general practitioners and primary care researchers. He coordinated and led the Deep End Project from 2009-2016, based on the 100 most deprived general practice populations in Scotland, and remains an active member of the steering group and advocate for the exceptional potential of general practice, especially in deprived areas.

Dr Julian Tudor Hart is best known for first describing the inverse care law whereby the availability of good medical care tends to vary inversely with the need for it in the population served. Somewhat ironically one of the best examples of general practice making a difference to population health comes from his own practice over 25 years in one of the most deprived communities in South Wales. His example has inspired “General Practitioners at the Deep End”, an international movement of general practitioners, beginning in Glasgow but now involving 14 networks in 7 countries, all working to address the inverse care law. But this is just one of many challenges facing general practice in the National Health Service as it faces an uncertain future.