OBJECTIVE To develop strategies to overcome barriers to preventive care in general practice. METHODS Participants invited to attend a one-day workshop ranked barriers to preventive care in a pre-workshop survey. During the workshop, small groups generated strategies to overcome the most influential barriers. After the workshop, participants nominated strategies for implementation in the ideal world and in the realities of resource constraints. METHODS Twenty-six participants representing general practice, medical academe, funding authorities, health policy planners, researchers, medicopolitical organisations and consumers. RESULTS The surveys yielded preferred strategies for implementation in the ideal world and 10 preferred strategies for implementation given likely resource constraints. CONCLUSIONS Authoritative guidelines are needed to guide clinical practice and to evaluate research. Other comprehensive strategies to overcome barriers to preventive care must be implemented and evaluated for effectiveness and acceptability in field experiments before wider implementation. The controlled implementation and evaluation of these strategies requires genuine collaboration amongst clinicians, health policy planners, researchers, funding authorities and general practice academe.