Stronger Together in Primary Care: Toward More Integrated Care Through Collaboration and Integration of GP Circles and Care Councils
The objective of this study is to examine to what extent the roles of GP circles (huisartsenkringen) in Flanders can be integrated into the functioning of care councils (zorgraden), with the aim of improving collaboration, achieving efficiency gains, and advancing the realization of integrated care in Flanders.
Various network structures are active in primary care, including care councils and profession-specific networks such as GP circles. In consultation with relevant stakeholders, we will work on establishing the necessary foundations for an operational plan to strengthen, align, simplify, and integrate these structures within primary care.
The research questions are:
What are the formal and actual responsibilities of GP circles and care councils, and to what extent do these responsibilities overlap (theory versus practice)?
In what ways can the tasks of GP circles be integrated into the structure and functioning of care councils?
What advantages, disadvantages, opportunities, and challenges would this bring for the stakeholders involved? What preconditions and critical success factors should be considered in the potential implementation of such a transition process?
Starting from the observation that a single-discipline approach is insufficient to address the challenges in primary care, to what extent is the current strategy—focused on multidisciplinarity with the care council as the organizing structure—considered meaningful and effective by stakeholders in promoting access to care and the realization of integrated care? What conditions are necessary for this?
