I am a lecturer with two publication, both qualitative healthcare research. Same theme with, 30 participant interview in total. Published in reasonable impact journals. Anyone in a similar position gone for a PhD by publication, my thought was I would need at least one or two more similar publication then tie them together in the theses. Is this enough?

I think you are right, you will need a couple more publications and then you need to write intro and conclusion chapters for the thesis. You will need to look at which unis offer this in your field and check out their requirements. I think there's quite a few unis that do it.

My understanding is that you'd need publications roughly = in word count to a standard phd, plus commentary, and you need to demonstrate a sustained and original contribution. So more like 5 pubs I think.

Thanks, its just whether I start from scratch with a traditional part time PhD and thesis or if the publication route makes more sense considering what I have already.

I would say it's probably just as quick to start on a PhD now, unless you've got more research already done that you can publish quickly.

There was a similar question the other day.

PhD by publication is a route to a PhD for people who already have publication (a form of accreditation by prior learning).

What do you mean by 'reasonable impact'? Qualitative research with that number of participants does not usually get anywhere decent!!