The Department of Health is promoting community pharmacies as ideal places to go for advice on how to stop smoking.
A press release issued by the Department on May 30, as the Pharmacy Healthcare Scheme was about to send new smoking cessation guidance to pharmacies, said that the Minister for Public Health (Ms Yvette Cooper) welcomed the issue of the new guidance to pharmacists on World No Tobacco Day (May 31).
The guidance, produced by the PHS and endorsed by the National Health Service, says that pharmacists have a key role in motivating smokers to stop by giving expert advice on effective support and treatment that is available.
The statement reported the PHS project manager (Ms Miriam Armstrong) as having said: "The role of pharmacists is an extremely important one in helping people stop smoking. The pharmacist can help people choose the right product as well as giving advice on how to stop smoking and directing them to further sources of support in the NHS."
Ms Armstrong added that with an estimated 6m people visiting pharmacies every day, at least 1m of these were likely to be smokers who wished to give up.
The guidance shows how brief interventions can help people to stop smoking and explains how nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) can double a person's chances of giving up successfully.
Mr Roger Odd (chairman, PHS) told The Journal: "We are very pleased to see the Government using this pharmacy initiative to demonstrate how health care is being developed in this country. This is strong evidence that pharmacists have a role to play in smoking cessation, that they have been making inroads in this key area and that this has been recognised by the Government."
The primary reason for the issue of the press release was to draw attention to a new smoking helpline.
A Scottish charity (Network Scotland) has been given a three-year contract to operate the helpline on behalf of the National Health Service.