Primary Care Partnerships — Progress and Problems

Abstract

Primary care groups and trusts, social services and wider local authority departments are making good progress in developing partnerships in a rapidly changing policy environment. These partnerships are developing at different levels (strategic planning, operational service delivery), both with social services departments and with a wider range of local authority functions. This paper draws on the latest round of the three‐year national Tracker Survey of Primary Care Groups and Trusts. The partnerships developed by PCG/Ts are considerably broader than the original key collaboration required with local social services departments; this raises questions about the role of the social services representative on the PCG Board/PCT Executive Committee. Some of the traditional obstacles to partnerships ‐ particularly differences in organisational boundaries ‐ and the imperatives of national policy priorities are continuing to shape local collaborative activity.

Citation

Coleman, A. and Glendinning, C. (2002), "Primary Care Partnerships — Progress and Problems", Journal of Integrated Care, Vol. 10 No. 6, pp. 3-8. https://doi.org/10.1108/14769018200200050