attitudes to rapid hiv testing among spanish general practitioners objectives the objectives of this study were to investigate the acceptability of rapid hiv testing among general practitioners in spain and to identify perceived barriers and needs in order to implement rapid testing in primary care settingsmethods an anonymous questionnaire was distributed online to all members of the two largest spanish scientific medical societies for family and community medicine the study took place between 15th june and 31st october 2010results completed questionnaires were returned by 1308 participants the majority 908 of respondents were general practitioners gp among all respondents 704 were aware of the existence of rapid tests for the diagnosis of hiv but they did not know how to use them nearly 80 of participants would be willing to offer rapid hiv testing in their practices and 747 would be confident of the results obtained by these tests the barriers most commonly identified by respondents were a lack of time and a need for training both in the use of rapid tests 443 and 564 respectively and required pre and posttest counselling 592 and 345 respectivelyconclusions this study reveals a high level of acceptance and willingness on the part of gps to offer rapid hiv testing in their practices nevertheless the implementation of rapid hiv testing in primary care will not be possible without moving from comprehensive pretest counselling towards brief pretest information and improving training in the use of rapid tests