Table 9 Interview excerpts reflective of the theme ‘Perceptions of recommendations’

“…Things that help, first of all is having the clear guidance as in what drug to choose when, so the guidance is very clear on what drugs you should use…”

Nurse practitioner, Blood pressure targets in hypertension (P44)

“… Yeah I mean well as I say they seem to be just about the standard things that we do, and they’re all just getting lower and lower so…what is it going to be next year, you know, they’re all going to come down, but as I say that’s the hardest thing I think is then, cause you think you’ve got a patient as low as you can get and then they drop it again, you know, so it’s an on-going challenge really and, you know, a lot of people it’s fairly easy to do because they’re very compliant but, you know, 97 % of something is quite a high proportion isn’t it when you’ve got individuals involved….”

Practice Manager, Treatment targets in type 2 diabetes (P27)

“…….. you would want to have a look at the recommendations and check that they’re done on sound evidence, erm that’s probably the first thing, if it… if it’s consistent with what everything else is, so is it a guideline that’s been developed purely for cost saving grounds or is it one that’s been developed cause of… there’s clinical concerns and the…and you do get a bit of both sometimes so either… and one combined together, so I think it’s making sure and checking that that’s appropriate and it’s transferrable to your patient population as well…”

GP, Risky prescribing (P11)