Table 1 Data extracts highlighting primary appraisals of non-adherent patients

FG4 P8: “…you’re not going to feel particularly compassionate towards people who are just not taking on board very simple advice, which will prevent them being the ones we see every week.”

Int 4: “…you feel like then that you’ve failed if you’ve maybe not got that message across…it does make you feel like you’ve not done a very good job…”

Int 5: “…it’s upsetting from a clinician’s point of view because you always want to see people improving.”

Int 6: “…we hate to see patients that are sort of not joining in with what we’ve said and we know the benefits from it so it does get very hard…I suppose it’s just the fact that they haven’t really took on board much that you’ve said.”

Int 9: “…you’ve come to a brick wall…if they’re not getting better or things are not improving, where do you actually go from there?”

Int 13: “That’s frustrating…because medically speaking you want to do the best for the patient and the best means that their sugar levels need to be down…”