The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7237 p262
22 February 2003

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Making your mark on No Smoking Day

Tobacco advertising campaigns have now been banned and new guidance for improving local access to smoking cessation therapies using patient group directions is to be launched next month. With No Smoking Day on 12 March approaching, there is plenty of scope for pharmacists to be involved in helping patients to quit smoking. Zoë Gross reports

On 14 February, tobacco advertising on billboards and in the press and magazines was banned across the United Kingdom under the Tobacco Advertising and Promotions Act 2002. This forms part of a Government initiative to reduce smoking-related deaths and disease. To mark the ban, some manufacturers of smoking cessation therapies took the opportunity to stage their own antismoking campaigns (see right).

New PGD guidance

On 5 March, PharmacyHealthLink (PHL, formerly the Pharmacy Healthcare Scheme) is launching guidance aimed at improving patient access to smoking cessation therapies by using patient group directions (PGDs). The guidance provides information on how to set up a PGD and includes information on supplying nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) outside its licensed terms, such as for pregnant women, patients with heart disease or diabetes. It outlines when it is appropriate to use PGDs and includes templates for NRT and bupropion.

Miriam Armstrong, chief executive, PHL, comments: "It is entirely up to individuals as to the amount of time and involvement that they want to invest. However, the Department of Health recently increased funding to support local smoking cessation programmes, so there has never been a better time to take up the challenge." Ms Armstrong says that providing such a service could make a difference to the local community. "If every pharmacist helped just one patient to stop smoking in their community then, nationwide, it would make an enormous difference."

To implement a PGD pharmacists will need to contact their local pharmaceutical adviser or smoking cessation co-ordinator.

The All-Party Pharmacy Group (APPG) is helping PharmacyHealthLink with the launch of the PDG guidance. A spokesman for the APPG says that one key issue is managing the perceptions of the risk involved in the use of NRT and bupropion and so ensuring that these products are used by those who most need help in quitting smoking.

"No one is suggesting that using these products comes near to the risk of smoking, but there is some evidence that the nicotine in NRT products may cause health problems for pregnant women and certain other groups of smokers." He adds that "pharmacists are in the frontline of managing these perceptions and in providing smokers wishing to quit with advice, guidance and support, as well as NRT and other therapies."

No Smoking Day

This year's No Smoking Day is on 12 March and the theme is "Sick of smoking?". How can pharmacists get involved and what are they doing to get involved in No Smoking Day?

The charity No Smoking Day has produced campaign packs which have already been sent out to pharmacies (see p273). Doreen McIntyre, chief executive of No Smoking Day, told The Journal that the first thing pharmacists have do to get involved in No Smoking Day is "to get geared up with information". She says that "pharmacists need to be on standby for a flood of people looking for help". The charity is confident that smokers will get the help they need from pharmacists.

Both multiples and independent community pharmacies are to be involved in No Smoking Day this year. Smiths Pharmacy at Bognor Regis, West Sussex, for example, will start providing customers with smoking cessation materials from this weekend. As well as having a window display, an instore display is being set up to provide information on the benefits of quitting, on NRT and on how to give up smoking. After No Smoking Day, information for those who have quit will be displayed. Claire Bacon, preregistration trainee at Smiths Pharmacy is involved in the campaign and says that the aim is to focus on quitting smoking rather than the effects of smoking.

Pharmacist Barbara Stewart, a trained smoking cessation adviser, will be available in the pharmacy on No Smoking Day to counsel, advise and encourage anybody interested in quitting smoking. She will be measuring patients' carbon monoxide levels using a smoke breathalyser (Smokalyzer).

Bob Rihal, a community pharmacist in south London, says that pharmacists and technicians in his pharmacies have received training on smoking cessation in preparation for No Smoking Day and all staff are getting involved. The pharmacies have been supplied with resource packs, containing support materials and items such as balloons and stickers as well as T-shirts to give away, and are being supplied with Smokalyzers for pharmacists to use on the day.

Mr Rihal says that the idea is to set up a consultation area and encourage people to stop smoking. He says that people should be made aware that there are avenues open to support them quit smoking. Patients attending his pharmacies who want to quit smoking have the option of being referred to a nurse at a local GP practice.

In Pembrokeshire, all community pharmacies are being sent an information pack from their local health group by its health promotion department. Chris Martin, chairman of Pembrokehshire Pharmacy Forum, says that pharmacists are being encouraged by the forum to have a window display during the week of No Smoking Day.

It seems that pharmacists are busy getting involved in No Smoking Day and there is plenty for them to do to help patients quit smoking.

Feature, p273

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