Table 5 A summary of the qualitative content analysis for the survey assessing the challenges experienced by event organisers (EOs) and practice staff in implementation of parkrun practice initiative

Challenges Experiences by Event Organisers

Resource Constraints (practice and event team):

Engagement amongst all practice staff

38.0% (167)

“We are having a lot of problems engaging with our GP Practices, we have invited them to come to the NHS celebrations and tried to engage with them to ensure they have all the latest information, but we rarely get any response from them.” (EO70)

Time/Workload

21.9% (96)

“As a parkrun organiser I am weary of taking on more and more work. parkrun practice initiatives must not increase my workload to any significant extent.” (EO27)

Initial GP enthusiasm with no follow up

7.3% (32)

“Good initial interest rapidly falls away.” (EO170)

Perceived staffing constraints within the practice

5.0% (22)

“The practice incredibly busy and somewhat understaffed” (EO142)

Communication:

Ongoing communication

9.3 (41)

“…there are no clear lines of communication between our event and the practices.” (EO277)

Knowing who to contact

4.8% (21)

“They keep changing their social prescribing personnel which is very frustrating” (EO143)

Lack of awareness/understanding regarding parkrun

Awareness

14.6% (64)

“[lack of] awareness of the initiative within the practice.” (EO17)

Lack of training/resources

12.5% (55)

“Some more material and information to core teams and emails to help parkruns engage with practices would be helpful please. I think teams often forget about the parkrun practice initiative with everything else they need to think about.” (EO48)

Structure of the initiative

No formal referral process

3.9% (17)

“Don’t really know what impact the GP practice is having on our parkrun. We don’t know who is coming specifically because of a recommendation by medical staff” (EO269)

Organisational constraints

3.2% (14)

“…so little support bearing in mind your asking volunteers to do the work.” (EO119)

External factors

COVID-19

4.1% (18)

“It started off great but has been difficult to restart from covid.” (EO315)

Geography

3.2% (14)

“Our paired practice isn’t in the same town as our event.” (EO386)

Challenges Experienced by Practice Staff

Resource Constraints (practice and event team)

Engagement

30.0% (125)

“It is so hard to motivate the staff to join in. Many are very sedentary and overweight and have no desire to change.” (HCW24)

Time/Workload

13.7% (57)

“The challenges tend to come from within primary care, we are too busy to fully promote it within our own team.” (HCW34)

“[difficulty] fitting the chat into busy consultations.” (HCW399)

Preconceptions and understanding:

Challenging preconceptions

6.3% (26)

“Patients thinking they have to run when they can walk or volunteer.”(HCW107)

Lack of (or lack of awareness of) resources/knowledge/training

5.5% (23)

“Lack of promotional materials” (HCW081)

Structure of the initiative

Organisational constraints including no formal referral process

2.4% (10)

“Difficult to capture data for patient participation to further promote parkrun.” (HCW225)

“No formal referral system in place for patients.” (HCW23)

External factors

Geography

9.6% (40)

“Main issue is not having a park run in our local catchment area, having to get public transport/ drive there would be a big deterrent to our patients.” (HCW258)

COVID-19

5.8% (24)

“Keeping up initiative and participation, initially was popular but dropped off over the pan demic.” (HCW102)

Cancellations

2.2% (9)

“The local Parkrun is often cancelled when it gets wet/muddy. Some of practice have helped with improving the course but it still gets cancelled often.” (HCW127)