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Health Care Anal (2009) 17:4767
DOI 10.1007/s10728-008-0094-8
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Rae Walker Penny Smith Jenny Adam
Published online: 12 June 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008
Abstract Trust is widely recognised is a core feature of partnership relationships and one that facilitates joint work. It is an issue that must be addressed if partnerships are to enhance service system integration. In recent literature trust has been linked to concepts of risk and control. In this study of trust within a Primary Care Partnership (PCP) in Australia the experiences of risk and uncertainty, and control, of participants in different structural positions, were explored in detail. The data used in this paper was qualitative, derived from 63 interviews with managers and service providers participating in committees of the PCP. This paper reports on the differences in the experience of risk and uncertainty, trust and control, of managers and service providers working as boundary spanners through the committees of a PCP. For managers there were signicant risks and uncertainties, and trust and control were important. For service providers there were few risks and uncertainties, and trust and control were of much less importance. Some policy implications of the differences in perspective are discussed, as are important areas for further research.
Keywords Partnerships Management of trust Trust Trust and policy
Introduction
In 2000 the Victorian government introduced the Primary Care Partnerships (PCP) Strategy with the policy objective of improving cooperation between agencies, enhancing health service delivery to users, and reducing the burden of ill-health in the community [10]. It is about achieving effective health system integration. In the Strategy a Partnership:
R. Walker (&) P. Smith J. Adam
School of Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne 3086, Australia e-mail: [email protected]
Making Partnerships Work: Issues of Risk, Trust and Control for Managers and Service Providers
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is a voluntary alliance of the primary care service providers [agencies] usually within a locality of 23 local government areas (LGAs);
will aim to improve the health and wellbeing of the local population by strengthening inter-agency coordination in the areas of needs identication, planning and service delivery;
will locate its work in a social model of health incorporating social, economic, environmental and bio-medical inuences on health and well-being;
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