In 1997, the UK's Labour government introduced several health policy changes, including plans for greater collaboration with private providers. Building on previous cross-sectional research, we explore longitudinal inequities in physician access as these policy changes were materializing. Using GEE models we examine the effect of income and private health insurance (PHI) coverage on access to physicians in the general UK population from 1997 to 2003. The study finds no income inequities in GP access. In contrast, those in the highest income quintile are more likely to access consultants overall (OR:1.10, CI: 1.01,1.19), particularly private consultants (OR:2.49, CI:1.80,3.44). Not surprisingly, PHI is a strong predictor of private consultant access (OR:8.72 CI: 7.04,10.82), but a weak predictor of overall consultant access (OR:1.09, CI:1.01, 1.17). None of these findings exhibited significant time trends across the years of study, thus indicating that the existing inequities remained stable in the UK, despite the aforementioned reforms.

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