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module menu icon New guidance

Smoking remains the single biggest preventable cause of early death and illness in the UK, despite a decrease in smoking prevalence. Earlier this year new NICE guidance was published, which aims to ensure that everyone who smokes is advised and encouraged to stop and given the support they need.

Those in primary and community settings should speak to people about their smoking status at every contact, the guidance says. “This is particularly important for people from more disadvantaged groups because evidence shows that they have much higher smoking rates and lower than average quit rates. They are also more likely to have respiratory, heart or other chronic conditions caused by, or worsened by, smoking.”

Although some pharmacy teams may worry that people who smoke may feel they are being given too much advice, NICE considers that missing the chance to give appropriate advice carries a greater risk of harm. “At every opportunity”, it says, pharmacy teams should “ask people if they smoke and advise them to stop smoking in a way that is sensitive to their preferences and needs”.

Key facts

  • Stopping smoking is the single most important thing patients can do to improve their health and that of others around them
  • 16 per cent (79,000) of all deaths in 2015 were attributed to smoking
  • Smoking-related illnesses cost the NHS £2.5 billion a year
  • The number of people using stop smoking services has declined
  • The number of prescriptions for stop smoking medications has fallen by over 50 per cent  since 2011.