A Tribute to Julian Tudor Hart

Victoria Winckler plays tribute to Julian Tudor Hart, a long-time supporter of the Bevan Foundation who sadly passed away recently.

Although many people may not have heard of Dr Julian Tudor Hart, everyone who receives care from a GP owes more than they will ever know to him.  His revolutionary approach to primary care recognised the invidious impact of poverty and inequality on health, long before it became commonplace. And his initiative to screen for and try to prevent conditions such as high blood pressure was unprecedented.

Even in retirement Julian had a great deal to say for himself! We were delighted that he wrote two pamphlets for the Bevan Foundation:

• What are People For? Mental Health in a Sick Society – available here and

• A New Path Entirely – how NHS Wales could lead the world – available here

Both are still outstanding contributions to thinking about health and healthcare and are well-worth a read at any time and all the more so on the NHS anniversary.

Dr Tudor Hart was never content with the current state of the NHS. He was a vigorous supporter, of course, but also a fierce critic of those who he felt paid only lip-service to the NHS’s principles. One of his less well-known insights was that the NHS is based on the idea of a ‘gift’ – care freely given by one person to another.

In 2013, we were delighted that Julian Tudor Hart was awarded a Bevan Prize life-time achievement award, as a tribute to his outstanding work, by a panel including Baroness Ilora Finlay and others.

We are saddened by Julian Tudor Hart’s death, but his ideas and good practice will carry on.

Victoria Winckler is Director of the Bevan Foundation