Pharmacy teams should identify smokers at every opportunity, deliver very brief advice and refer to effective support, such as pharmacy stop smoking services. There is good evidence for the effectiveness of very brief interventions, such as those linked to the public health requirements of the pharmacy contract. All members of the pharmacy team should undertake training to enable them to offer very brief advice on stop smoking, especially if pharmacies have healthy living status or are working towards accreditation.

Very brief advice is designed to be delivered in around 30 seconds and uses the Department of Health recommended ‘AAA’ approach – Ask, Advise, Act:

Ask patients if they or anyone in the household smoke and if they have thought about stopping or making their home smoke free. This can be done when patients request a cough medicine or when they hand in a prescription for medicines to treat conditions that are exacerbated by smoking (e.g. diabetes, COPD, asthma).

Advise patients that stopping smoking is the single most important thing they can do to improve their health and that of others around them. If they are not ready to quit, advise them to make their homes and cars smoke free to protect their children from the harms of second-hand smoke exposure. 

Act on the patient’s response by building confidence, giving information or referring to a local stop smoking service. This could be in the pharmacy or another local service.

Further information and training

• The National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT)
• CPPE’s Learning Pharmacy
• Smokefree Resource Centre
• No Smoking Day
• ASH
• Quitkit.