Table 5 GPs' qualitative comments regarding strength and shortcomings the herbal medicines fact sheets.

Good size (n = 8)

"one page is excellent", "compact resource" and "give answers to all patients' questions in just one sheet".

Well presented (n = 19)

"well presented", "well set out", "the layout was similar to other drug information"

General comments about appearance (n = 5)

"clever color coding", "written in style doctors understand", "handy summarised for quick reference", "durable".

Content (n = 36)

"concise", "succinct," "comprehensive", "the right amount of information", "right amount and type of information", "evidence based", "objective, not overstated", "informative", "suitable material", "excellent accurate information for doctors".

Usefulness/helpful (n = 7)

"useful", "helpful", "enjoyed having information both for my own knowledge and for the patients, would like more fact sheets", "increased my knowledge", "I used the information sheet to write information for patients to take home and decide if they want to use CM", "I would love more fact sheets", "need more of these resources that GPs can use quickly to gain good sound knowledge about herbs".

Short-comings

Themes and comments

Computerised version (n = 10)

"computer database would be best such as in medical director that was continually updated", "a cd or computer format", "prefer computer stored version", "include in MIMs rather than fact sheets", "best if available on medical director clinical software to avoid stacking up paper/clinical guidelines".

Patient version (n = 3)

"not suitable for patients", "too technical for patients", "patient leaflet e.g. tear off tool would be very useful with same information less technical terms".

Too much information (n = 4)

"slightly too large", "size, rapid accessibility during consultation", "sheets very busy, a lot of info but better on one page then several", "too much information, but I don't know how you could cut it down".

Not enough fact sheets- want more on other CMs (n = 5)

"not enough of them", "not enough medicines covered", "more of them", "more fact sheet on other commonly used herbs, few sheets isn't enough".