ABSTRACT
This chapter briefly examines the development of the British health service and the disparities in health that have been found. It considers socio-economic inequities, gender diversity, regional inequalities and the contrasts between ethnic groups. The chapter assesses the role of the health service in dealing with health inequalities and discusses the future of Britain's primary care services in the context of their ability to work along with a range of other agencies to begin narrowing what has become known in Britain as 'the health divide'. In order to gain an understanding of Britain's failure to match the improvements in health that had been evident in some other developed countries during the post-war period, a working group on inequalities in health was set up in 1977 by the then Labour government. Women are the main users of health services and comprise the majority of health service workers, however many critics have argued that generally speaking, women have not received appropriate care.
