Bureaucracy, trust and time: recruitment in a low-risk study of paediatric protocols for children who miss medical appointments

As Roe et al 1 point out, failing to ensure access to paediatric appointments has implications for a range of outcomes, including safeguarding. Here we report challenges we experienced in finding out from the frontline how protocols intended to address this problem are experienced on the ground. Following our did not attend (DNA)2 3 studies, we reviewed recruitment notes on our attempts to talk to people tasked with producing or implementing these protocols. After speedy institutional ethics review, we required research and development (R&D) approval from each trust where we had identified a relevant DNA protocol in order to ask potential interviewees if we could talk to them. R&D contacts were helpful but risk-averse. Challenges included …