Pharmacy smoking cessation services in Sheffield aided by development
worker
Community pharmacy technicians and dispensary staff in Sheffield helped to increase the number of people who stopped smoking by 112 per cent in just three years after the appointment of a development worker to the smoking cessation service.
The South East Sheffield Primary Care Trust created the post to support
pharmacy staff and GPs offering smoking cessation services in order to
help meet its three-year target of persuading 2,840 people to quit between
2003 and 2006.
The worker helped to identify obstacles pharmacy staff and GPs had experienced,
which included confusion over how to refer a patient on to a specialist
service and the administration around a referral. A referral protocol
was developed and referral pads were created as well as posters and leaflets
advertising the community-based services.
The success of the appointment was reflected in the number of people
who quit for more than four weeks, which went up from 452 in 2003–04
to 859 in 2004–05 — an increase of 92 per cent. The following
12 months the figure increased to 962 — a rise of 112 per cent
in three years.
Tina Cooke, chairman of the Sheffield Local Pharmaceutical Committee,
said that the development worker made a huge difference because a single
point of contact was available if the pharmacy staff had a problem about
the service or needed advice.
Ms Cooke added: “It is definitely a model which could be used elsewhere — there
are pharmacists out there wanting to deliver this service and, with the
publication of the White Paper, are gearing themselves up to deliver
more.”
The Sheffield initiative is one of three involving community pharmacists
that are put forward as examples of best practice in a Government document “Excellence
in tobacco control: 10 high impact changes to achieve tobacco control”,
published last month.
The other two projects are a scheme in Birmingham involving a partnership
between pharmacists and Citizens Advice Bureau workers and one in Swindon
where pharmacists took part in a borough-wide initiative to prepare people
for the ban on smoking in public places in England.
Tobacco control Plain
cigarette packets with no branding or logos, minimum pack sizes of 20
(to stop young people, who can only afford packs of 10, buying cigarettes)
and a ban on the advertising of cigarette papers are proposals put forward in
a new Department of Health consultation document “The
future of tobacco
control”, published last week.
The consultation aims to start a debate
around further measures that would stop people smoking and prevent young people
from starting to smoke. |
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