National Smoking Cessation Service
In January 2019, the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) was published which said that the NHS would make a significant new contribution to making England a smoke-free society, by supporting people in contact with NHS services to quit based on a proven model, the Ottawa Model for Smoking Cessation (OMSC). The OMSC establishes the smoking status of all patients admitted to hospital followed by brief advice, personalised bedside counselling, timely nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) or pharmacotherapy, and follow-up of the patient after discharge. The NHS LTP also said that all people admitted to hospital who smoke would be offered NHS-funded tobacco treatment services by 2023/24.
In July 2019, PSNC, NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) agreed a five-year deal for community pharmacies, which included piloting a service to take stop smoking referrals from secondary care and then if successful, in Year 3 (2021/22) to commission such a service nationally.
In 2020/21 a Pharmacy Integration Fund pilot on smoking cessation began to test a new model of working in which community pharmacies managed the continuing provision of smoking cessation support initiated in secondary care following patient discharge from hospital.
The early findings from the pilot indicated that a consistent, national offer could be achieved through community pharmacy, and that it could create the capacity needed to enable NHS trusts to transfer patients for smoking cessation support into the community. The SCS was therefore added to the NHS Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) as part of Year 3 (2021/22) of the five-year CPCF deal.
Additional Resources
Master Presentation – Training Event