Health inequalities • THEME People of Aboriginal descent are among the diverse

patients whose health is overseen by general practitioners across Australia. The Ottawa Charter1 outlines the prerequisites for health as: ‘peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable eco-system, sustainable resources, social justice and equity’. It goes on to describe ‘enabling’ features such as ‘access to information, life skills and opportunities for making healthy choices’. Even for Aboriginal people settled in a major urban centre such as Adelaide (South Australia) these are largely unavailable. Certainly the idea of ‘coordinated action by all concerned’ to support health seems but a pipe dream. ‘Compliance ’ is a term often used by the medical profession when talking about patients and the investigations, medication and treatment arranged for them. The implication of ‘poor compliance ’ is that th