BMJ 1998;317:1444-1446 ( 21 November )

Education and debate

Refugees and primary care: tackling the inequalities

David Jones, lecturer, ^a Paramjit S Gill, senior lecturer. ^b

^a Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, Royal Free and University College Medical Schools, Whittington Hospital, London N19 SNF, ^b Department of General Practice, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT

Correspondence to: Dr Jones d.l.jones@ucl.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

As the 20th century draws to a close, outbreaks of hatred between human population groups show no sign of abating and conflicts continue to erupt. Families across the world find themselves forced to leave their homes and seek refuge where it can be found.

Globally, there are 18 million refugees with 230 000 living in the United Kingdom (see box 1).¹ Almost half of these live in London, where 100 000 people are refugees or awaiting confirmation of refugee status.² Asylum seekers come from several countries around the world (see box 2). Many refugees have health problems but experience difficulty having their needs met by the NHS.³ This article explores the challenges that refugees pose for primary care and suggests alternative strategies to address inequalities in the care of refugees.

Table Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)

Table Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)

	What happens to refugees?

In Britain the geographical distribution of refugees has been influenced by many factors, including local authorities' housing policies.⁴ The refugee population is not . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Primary care for refugees and asylum seekers

Sally A Hull and Kambiz Boomla
BMJ 2006 332: 62-63. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

GPs need training and funding in caring for refugees and asylum seekers

Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi, Raj Bhopal, and Julia A Quickfall
BMJ 2004 328: 770. [Extract] [Full Text]

Health care for asylum seekers

Sarah Montgomery, Peter Le Feuvre, Sumra Dar, and Peter von Kaehne
BMJ 2000 321: 893. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Meeting health needs of asylum seekers

Helen Hogan and Philip Matthews
BMJ 1999 318: 671. [Extract] [Full Text]

Planning and resources are needed to help refugees
BMJ 1998 317: 0. [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Hull, S. A, Boomla, K. (2006). Primary care for refugees and asylum seekers. BMJ 332: 62-63 [Full text]  
• Katikireddi, S. V., Bhopal, R., Quickfall, J. A (2004). GPs need training and funding in caring for refugees and asylum seekers. BMJ 328: 770-770 [Full text]  
• England, R., Doughty, K., Genc, S., Putkeli, Z. (2003). Working with refugees: Health education and communication issues in a child health clinic. Health Education Journal 62: 359-368 [Abstract]  
• Burnett, A., Peel, M. (2001). Asylum seekers and refugees in Britain: What brings asylum seekers to the United Kingdom?. BMJ 322: 485-488 [Full text]  
• Montgomery, S., Le Feuvre, P., Dar, S., von Kaehne, P. (2000). Health care for asylum seekers. BMJ 321: 893-893 [Full text]  
• Hogan, H., Matthews, P. (1999). Meeting health needs of asylum seekers. BMJ 318: 671-671 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Increasing health inequalities for refugees

Helen Hogan
bmj.com, 27 Nov 1998 [Full text]

refugees and primary care: consider service use

Caroline Free
bmj.com, 3 Mar 1999 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more >>