Collaborative relationships in general practice projects.

This article reports on a national study of collaborative relationships between general practitioners and other health care providers in 20 Division of General Practice projects. It argues that health care organisations will need to collaborate with others in the future and that much can be learnt from the literature on collaborative networks in business and community organisations. Successful collaborations between general practitioners and others were found to be consistent with a model of collaboration in 'under-organised domains', where pre-existing links between organisations are weak. Lessons are identified from the study to assist future collaborative ventures involving general practitioners.