National No Smoking Day

Today is No Smoking Day and an opportunity to persuade your patients to give up smoking.

PCRS-UK is campaigning for healthcare professionals to view tobacco dependency as a long term relapsing condition that starts in childhood.

The Autumn 2016 issue of Primary Care Respiratory Update explains the campaign in more detail and why treating tobacco dependency should be the responsibility of every healthcare professional. Patients need support because only about one in twenty unaided attempts to quit smoking result in smokers stopping for good.

Read the campaign article HERE:

A wall chart sets out how you can support smokers to quit by:

• Offering Very Brief Advice
• Using carbon monoxide breath test monitors
• Offering pharmacological treatment
• Advising on the use of e-cigarettes

Access the wallchart HERE:

You could also use today’s publicity to direct your patients to the Action on Smoking and Health No Smoking Day online resources which emphasise the health and financial benefits of stopping smoking. 

The key message of this year’s National No Smoking Day campaign is to encourage smokers to ‘Ditch or Switch’ - i.e. to quit smoking or to switch to electronic cigarettes as a safer alternative to smoking. 

The resources can be accessed HERE:

A short film put together by the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training which can be found HERE is designed to help smokers considering switching to vaping.