The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7162 p251-255
25 August 2001

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Communicating pharmacists’ role in health promotion services

Pharmacists should communicate the role they can play in providing health promotion services, the Pharmacy Healthcare Scheme said this week. The comments follow the publication of a study that shows that paying general practitioners to provide health promotion services is unlikely to generate effective health promotion activity.

Dr Terry Maguire, director, PHS, said: “Pharmacists are known to be effective in helping people stop smoking when they have been trained to do this. Therefore, pharmacists need not be shy in making it known that they are willing to do this work locally and help reduce the pressure on surgery staff.”

In the study, researchers piloted a new health promotion payment for smoking cessation was piloted and surveyed GPs’ and practice nurses’ attitudes towards it.

They found that the pilot payment did not change behaviour towards advising patients on stopping smoking. “Our findings suggest that primary care staff remained resistant to raising the topic of smoking more frequently because they thought this could engender confrontation with patients,” they say. GPs and practice nurses also felt that the payment did not reward the effort put into smoking cessation. Practices were paid £15 for each smoker identified who had stopped for at least three months (BMJ 2001;323:432).

Miriam Armstrong, chief executive, PHS, said: “We have enough convincing evidence of the valuable role that trained pharmacists play in helping people stop smoking. It is now a matter of confidence in promoting their services to GPs and other health professionals.”

The PHS has a model patient group for nicotine replacement therapy available (tel 020 7572 2265, e-mail phs@rpsgb.org.uk).

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