From the staff’s perspective, there is a risk that the model appears over complicated and time consuming, requiring skills and equipment that they may not have locally.
It is important to emphasise the flexibility of the tool to reassure staff that as long as the core elements of the tool are met, they can adapt it to their local circumstances.
Recruiting patients for the project can be a challenge – it is not easy to explain a complicated project during a busy clinic and some teams may struggle to find enough patients willing to commit.
Setting up a database and webpage of patients willing to become involved makes the process of recruiting patients easier.
Posters and leaflets emphasising the local nature of the work can help.
A positive feature of the work by one of the teams was in identifying interested patients before the process started.