Services Database Smoking Cessation in Community Pharmacy (Buckinghamshire)

Community Pharmacy teams will deliver brief interventions, assessments and support to clients who are motivated and want to stop smoking. The following levels of support are available to pharmacy clients wishing to quit smoking:

• Brief intervention - usually the first contact for a customer with a member of the pharmacy team, who will spend between 1-3 minutes raising the issue of smoking and for a motivated quitter refer them to either pharmacy based smoking cessation support or a specialist smokefree service for support.
• Pharmacy based support - offered by a minimum level 2 trained smokefree adviser (can be anyone employed by the pharmacy who has received training to the required standards for less dependent and motivated quitters). A pharmacy may supply NRT products to customers who have been provided with a letter of referral issued by a Bucks Smokefree Support Service (BSSS) specialist advisor.

A member of the pharmacy team must have achieved level 1 and 2 accreditation with the National Centre for Smoking Cessation Training (NCSCT) and attended ½ a day training organised and run by Buckinghamshire Smokefree Support Service, in accordance with national guidelines training standards for smoking cessation. Those who previously trained with BSSS or another LSSS should achieve full NCSCT certification by the end of 2014/15.