Table 2 An example of how the 3-step analysis was performed

Selective thematic basis

Informant 3

Casting of especially evocative statements

Detailed reading with thematic analysis

For example. I was at the municipal rehabilitation and then I get a call from the hospital. They are saying that I have an appointment with them now. And I say no, I don’t have an appointment. I didn’t get any letter with an appointment. I don’t have e-boks. And then she goes quite. They know I don’t get the digital letters.

Informant 5

INF 5: Well, I go to the district psychiatry every third week, but it is kind of too long for me to be able… it’s as if it sort of crumbles along the way. […] The problem is that it becomes a bit like a garland. Where I kind of go down into depression and start having some psychotic experiences. It is clear that the treatment helps me get back up again, but when the visits are so far apart, I sink pretty low […]. I drop so low that I start having thoughts about suicide and stuff like that.

The participants’ experiences of losing control over their illness were exacerbated by the experience of inflexibility in the provision of healthcare services and how this was perceived as poor quality of care.

The participants described feeling powerless towards system rigidness.

The expressions are exhaustion, pain, anxiety, and frustration.

It can take all day really. For example, you can leave at half past ten and not be back home until five o’clock. And if you are struggling, or are in pain or something, and have to sit for that many hours, then you can’t do anything the next day. Because all your energy is spent.

Informant 2

So she tells me that she's sent an acute referral to the hospital. And the reply I get is that I can get an appointment in a year. So, I've just been waiting for that. But now, during the last couple of days it's just gotten so bad that I made an emergency call this morning. I am seeing double, my head is spinning, I have pressure to my chest. I Can not wait any longer.

Of course they are busy people. I know that. I’ve seen how they run around not knowing how to make ends meet. It can be hard for them as well. They are just people like us, aren’t they?

Informant 3

It was Saturday, and all of a sudden they decide to discharge me. My children, they didn’t know when they were going to discharge me.

It was Saturday, and all of a sudden they decide to discharge me. My children, they didn’t even know they were going to discharge me.

Informant 7

We had been looking forward to going home, and then at 9 the next day, no one shows up. And then we're told that they forgot to sign us up for discharge. So we end up having to wait a day before we can go home. And I just feel like that's not good enough.