Successful Quitting Increase - NPA Resources Available For Pharmacy Services, UK

Main Category: Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Article Date: 07 Feb 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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NPA has support resources for members wanting to provide a stop smoking service in light of the increasing number of people giving up.

Data published this week by The Information Centre for Health and Social Care shows that almost 165,000 people in England gave up smoking with the help of the NHS last summer, when smoking was banned in enclosed public spaces. This is a 28% increase in the number of people successfully using NHS Stop Smoking Services compared to 2006. The highest success rates were reported by the East Midlands, East of England, South East Coast and South Central Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs), while the North East SHA reported the lowest rate, although the difference was not great.

Quitters were defined as those who reported that they were still not smoking four weeks after treatment.

The Stop Smoking Toolkit - Implementing a Community Pharmacy stop smoking scheme in England highlights government targets, identifies the key areas that should be considered locally and provides supporting information from existing schemes. Although the pack is aimed primarily at getting an enhanced service commissioned under the pharmacy contract, many of the processes will be useful for pharmacists wanting to improve and expand an existing NHS service or develop a private stop smoking service. Downloadable from here.

Marketing materials to support the smoking ban include a smoking ban pack and a stop smoking A2 poster. The pack includes:

- A model smoke-free policy for members,
- Application details to apply for the National Clean Award (first 1,000 successful applications are free)
- Talk notes
- A summary of service options that can be offered to patients
- A patient feedback form to collect evidence on your services
- An evidence collection form to support applications to your PCO
- 100 Bag Stuffers (to advertise all pharmacy services) and 100 Business Cards (to encourage smoking cessation service uptake) were distributed and are still available for purchase through NPA Sales 01727 800401.

All marketing materials are available through the NPA Campaigns section of the website.

Neal Patel, NPA Head of Communications said: "These materials are helping support our members to take advantage of the opportunity the smoking ban has created."

National Pharmacy Association

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