The potential of community pharmacies to help more people stop smoking remains untapped and is ‘restricted by barriers within the current system’, says a report from the Community Chemists’ Association (CCA).
The current disjointed approach to commissioning is wasting the opportunity to help more people quit, the report says, with significant variations in locally commissioned services – creating inconsistency for patients and complexity for the pharmacies themselves. This is despite the large numbers of pharmacies in the most deprived areas, where 20 per cent of all smokers live. The national NHS Community Pharmacy Smoking Cessation service’s reliance on hospital referrals also limits the number of people who can access support.
The document calls for a nationally consistent model to maximise the potential of community pharmacies alongside existing NHS, local authority and specialist services, and ensure the 2030 smoke-free target is met. This would include developing and rolling out a national framework for a community pharmacy stop smoking service to help provide consistent patient pathways, standards and funding models, as well as ensure that support services are targeted where they are most needed.
‘With millions of adults still smoking, it’s imperative that policymakers use all levers at their disposal – including community pharmacies – to support people to quit smoking once and for all,’ said CCA chief executive Malcolm Harrison. ‘Community pharmacies are ideally placed to help more people quit smoking, particularly in deprived areas where smoking rates are often the highest. Yet the current system is making it unnecessarily difficult for pharmacies to deliver the support people who smoke need. It cannot be right that around half of pharmacies have signed up to the national NHS service, but less than 2 per cent are receiving referrals for patient consultations. If the government is serious about achieving its smokefree ambitions and tackling health inequalities, it must remove the barriers preventing community pharmacy from playing its full part.’
Meanwhile, Public Health Wales has launched a new app to help people who want to quit vaping. The free NHS Wales Help Me Quit app allows people to set goals, track their progress and ‘tackle the habits’ that can make quitting vaping difficult.
‘Vaping has helped many people in Wales stop smoking and remain smoke-free,’ said consultant for Public Health Wales Mary-Ann McKibben. ‘For those individuals, our priority is to reduce the risk of relapse back to smoking. The new vaping module provides a practical, evidence-based and proportionate response. It helps people understand their nicotine use, make informed decisions and reduce or stop vaping at a pace that is right for them. At the same time, we are hearing from increasing numbers of adults who would like support to become completely nicotine-free.’
Maximising community pharmacy’s contribution to smokefree ambitions in England is available here
Help Me Quit app available here