Table 6 Representative quotes: decision aids needs

6:1 We've actually got charts of smiley faces and I haven't used them, but when it was on IT [computer based] in the DARTS [Decision aids in Routine Treatment Study] I did find it useful. (GP2 – Male – FG2)

6:2 HRT risk errm, you know like how many people get breast cancer...that sort of thing and I use that regularly because it's quite easy to understand err, it helps me understand the figures! (GP2 – Female – FG3)

6:3 [They] went through some of the more sophisticated computer based tools but [it] seemed unfathomable to get them into a 10 minute consultation and actually he was in an internet site and using it in the consultation setting. (GP2 – Female – FG2)

6:4 It needs the decision aids to be there, it needs them to be readily accessible without faff and it needs experiential training of us. (GP2 – Male – FG2)

6:5 I get jumbled you know per 100,000 or 10,000 ...Your language is so subjective isn't it because it's how you interpret the risks. (GP2 – Female – FG2)

6:6 Some patients are able to process the information that you give them very easily and other people might even be not able to read or the information that is given to them is very difficult to interpret. (GP2 – Male – FG1)

6:7 [if it is a person] who can cope with the anxiety of not making a decision [in the consultation] it might be better to give him [sic] a decision making aid he could take away and work with. (GP2 – Female – FG2)

6:8 An NHS bank of internet information and decision aids would be absolutely a good aid because the downside of leaflets on your desk is a) keep an eye on the fact and that there still in date and b) if you want to get a bit of information from leaflets on different topics you would have no desk space left. (GP3 – Male – FG1)