Smoking cessation report
Download (PDF 1.08 MB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Blackburn with Darwen wanted to understand how effective local smoking cessation services were. They undertook mystery shopping of local pharmacies offering the smoking cessation service, face to face surveys and a survey of the participating pharmacies. They spoke to 64 people..
There was little promotion of the service within the pharmacies who provide it, therefore it is not visible enough to residents who might be considering quitting smoking. Only 25% of residents Healthwatch spoke with had accessed support to quit smoking via the pharmacy provision. Pharmacies who responded to their survey referred to the need for more advertisements and leaflets both for their service and local businesses. One pharmacy also stated that if they had additional funding, they would invest in marketing to reach a wider audience.
The level of signposting by both GPs and dentists to the local smoking cessation provision is poor and does not meet NICE guidelines. One pharmacy felt that better signposting by other professionals would increase take up of the service.
Feedback from residents was that lack of willpower and motivation were key factors in being able to quit smoking therefore if they are faced with a barrier of not being able to make a first appointment on the day they decide to take steps towards quitting smoking, they might not make a future appointment.
If pharmacies are unable to staff the smoking cessation service each day, it would be helpful for residents if they could make a referral to a nearby alternative participating pharmacy for a same day appointment, in order to support residents in their decision to quit.
The majority of respondents who had accessed the pharmacy provision to quit smoking felt that it was not helpful. One of the reasons for this was that it was mainly product support only and NRT made them feel sick and they felt that ‘the patches were far too strong’.
The other reason people gave for not finding the pharmacy provision helpful was that there was no motivational or behaviour change support available through this offer. Several suggested that behaviour change or motivational support, CBT or group support would be beneficial to help them to quit smoking.
The report contains six recommendations about improving local smoking cessation services.