3 RESULTS
Nineteen (19) service users (aged
from 21 to 71 years) and seventeen (17) practitioners (aged from 33 to
55 years) were interviewed between September 2014 and September 2015.
Two (2) service users had a previous diagnosis of cancer, and all the
other service user participants had relatives or friends who had a
previous diagnosis of cancer, which may have motivated them to
participate in the study. Once they had agreed to take part, no
participants dropped out of the study. The demographic characteristics
of interviewees are shown in table 1.
[Insert Table 1 here]
The overarching themes identified barriers and facilitators to
implementing the tool. The barriers were: the need for additional
consultation time; unnecessary worry relating to cancer investigations;
over-referral that could over-burden services; practitioner scepticism;
conflict with existing guidelines; certain
symptoms needing referral at any
risk; the need to train practitioners on use of the tool; the need to
establish effectiveness of the tool against existing practice before
introducing it into practice; and the need to integrate the tool into
general practice systems. These are discussed in more detail below.