As the EUROPREV Forum 2026 approaches in Madrid, one of primary care’s most provocative voices prepares to challenge the status quo of industrialized medicine.
The EUROPREV Forum 2026 (Madrid, March 26–27) is honored to welcome Dr. Iona Heath as a keynote speaker. A towering figure in British and global general practice, Dr. Heath has spent her career advocating for the ethical heart of medicine and the vital importance of the doctor-patient relationship.
In this exclusive interview for WONCA Europe, Dr. Heath provides a searing critique of modern preventive "targets" and calls for a return to a more human, less extractive form of healthcare.
About Dr. Iona Heath, CBE
Dr. Iona Heath is a retired General Practitioner from the inner city of London and a world-renowned writer on the philosophy of medicine. Her distinguished career includes:
-
President of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), 2009–2012.
-
Executive Member of the WONCA World Executive, 2007–2013.
-
Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), awarded for her services to healthcare.
-
Author of the critically acclaimed book The Mystery of General Practice.
The Interview: Re-imagining Prevention for 2026
The Profit Motive: Challenging the "Medical Industrial Complex"
1. What is the key message you intend to convey at the EUROPREV Forum, and why do you consider it particularly relevant today? "
I want to try to explain the ways in which 'preventive' healthcare contributes to the extracting of profits from publicly funded health services. I will examine the malign influence of the medical industrial complex in relation to other similar 'complexes' and draw lessons from the literature of, for example, the non-profit industrial complex which tends to transform activists into technocrats alongside the growth of experts in management and the emergence of education and training, all of which trends are amply reflected within the history of preventive medicine in primary care."
The "Figleaf of Concern": Individual Responsibility vs. Social Determinants
2. Contemporary public health discourse increasingly emphasises individual responsibility. Does this emphasis risk diverting attention from the social, commercial, and political determinants of health?
"Absolutely – this is how my 'figleaf of concern' functions."
Beyond Stigma: The Doctor’s Duty to Mitigate Fear
3. In primary care, preventive work often sits uneasily between clinical care and moral judgement. How can clinicians promote prevention without conveying blame or contributing to the stigmatization of patients? "Indeed – I am not sure they can and worse they risk increasing the burden of fear whereas my view is that the responsibility of doctors is to mitigate fear as much as possible."
Iatrogenic Determinism: When Intervention Undermines Health
4. From an ethical standpoint, where should we draw the limits of preventive intervention in individuals who perceive themselves to be healthy?
"We should be very cautious indeed about undermining any individual's perception of their own health which all too easily becomes manifested in a sort of iatrogenic determinism. We need to be very sure that the benefits of our intervention will outweigh the harms and this is not established for the great majority of 'preventive' interventions within primary care."
Person-Centred Care vs. Interchangeable Technocracy
5. Drawing on your work on the doctor–patient relationship, what distinguishes genuinely person-centred prevention from technocratic or target-driven approaches?
"A genuinely person-centred intervention is grounded in a continuing relationship within which the unique context, hopes and aspirations of each patient can be taken into account. Technocratic and target-driven interventions treat both doctors and patients as interchangeable units within an insensitive industrialised system."
Radical Reform: Should we Stop Conventional Prevention?
6. In a period marked by climate crisis, widening inequalities, and increasing strain on health systems, how should prevention within primary care be re-imagined?
"Most of it should simply be stopped because the most effective preventive intervention in primary care results from building continuing relationships between individual doctors and their patients. Current systems are making this almost impossible."
Reflecting on Purpose: Who Truly Benefits?
7. What is the key message you would like participants to take away from the EUROPREV Forum 2026?
"We need to think about who benefits from our persistence with industrialised interventions that consume huge resources for so very little benefit."
Cultural Insight: On Loneliness, Theft, and Late Capitalism
8. Are you reading a book currently? If so, which one and what is it about?
"Yes: One day, everyone will have always been against this" by Omar El Akkad. It is immediately about Gaza but more widely about the dehumanisation of humanity:
'Whatever late capitalism is, it seems to be careening into this embrace of growth by negation. Through that prism, it’s hard not to see the advances in something like artificial intelligence less driven by technological breakthroughs as by a society that has, over years, over decades, become normalized to a greater and greater magnitude of both loneliness and theft, such that a sputtering algorithm badly trained on the stolen work of real human beings might be celebrated with a straight face as something approaching humanness. Under this ordering, it is not some corporation’s increasing capacity for better that drives the extractive world, but everyone else’s increasing tolerance for worse.'"
📢 EVENT INFORMATION & HIGHLIGHTS
|
Forum Details |
Why Attend? |
|---|---|
|
Event: EUROPREV Forum 2026 |
Hear Revolutionary Ideas: Engage with Dr. Iona Heath’s critique of modern prevention. |
|
Location: Madrid, Spain |
Global Networking: Connect with primary care leaders and WONCA Europe members. |
|
Dates: March 26–27, 2026 |
Professional Growth: Earn CPD/CME credits while discussing the ethics of care. |
|
Registration: https://forum.europrev.eu/ |
Impact: Help re-imagine a more person-centered future for General Practice. |
💡 Quick Quotes from Dr. Heath
-
"The responsibility of doctors is to mitigate fear as much as possible."
-
"Most [prevention] should simply be stopped... [and replaced by] continuing relationships."
-
"We need to think about who benefits from our persistence with industrialised interventions."