Table 2.

Thematic coding framework

Theme	Category
Patients reporting of symptoms	Subjectivity of patient symptom experience
	Patient symptom “stories” change between consultations
	Difficulty eliciting symptoms
	Patients do not always recognise symptoms
	Patients do not always report symptoms
	Patients often perceive symptoms as normal
GP response to symptoms	Identifying “alarm” Symptoms for lung cancer
	Importance of GP hunch/gut instinct
	Difficulty judging severity of symptoms experienced
	Previous non‐attendance at GP practice as an “alarm” symptom
Investigating for lung cancer	Low threshold of suspicion for ordering chest X‐rays
	Chest X‐ray as a “blunt instrument”
	High threshold of suspicion required for onward referral
	Need for greater diagnostic tools (eg, CT scanning)
Potential for early diagnosis	Fatalist attitude amongst GPs
	Critique of national symptom awareness campaigns
	Preference for practice‐led targeted interventions over national awareness campaigns
	Preference for interventions targeting patient types rather than particular symptoms