[New models of collaboration within the primary care team: transversality and coordination. SESPAS Report 2026].

Abstract

To advance towards a more responsive, equitable and sustainable model of primary care, it is necessary, among other actions, to move beyond the traditional structure centred on the roles of nurses and physicians. The existence of the primary care team is grounded in the principles established in the Declaration of Alma-Ata (1978). This article analyses the factors that currently hinder its effectiveness, based on the needs it is expected to address, and proposes criteria that may contribute to its improvement and further development, focusing efforts on providing comprehensive care to individuals from an individual, family and community perspective. Such development is possible by giving greater prominence to collaborative clinical management processes, as well as to training, communication and intra-team coordination, together with the assumption by all team members of new professional profiles and competencies, so that each activity is carried out by the professional most competent to do so. This transformation redefines professional roles, resulting in an interdisciplinary and multiprofessional team that brings together nurses, physicians and administrative staff with other professional roles -established roles that are not yet fully integrated into primary care teams-, such as physiotherapists, pharmacists, dentists, psychologists and nursing assistants. The aim is to jointly address diagnoses, treatments and care, as well as complex care processes, thereby enhancing problem-solving capacity and expanding care delivery beyond the physical structure of the health centre.