Pharmacists must emphasise their smoking cessation successes as the future commissioning of the services remains uncertain, PSNC has warned.

The future of local pharmacy smoking cessation services was "not clear", because they could be commissioned by either local authorities or clinical commissioning groups under future NHS structures, PSNC head of NHS services Alastair Buxton told C+D.

"It will be important for pharmacy to emphasise... the successes we have seen to these new commissioners" Alastair Buxton, PSNC	More on smoking services Smoking out the hard to reach Pharmacists front ‘Stoptober' stop-smoking campaign Study warns of possible e-cigarette health risks
	"It will be important for pharmacy to emphasise the accessibility of the services it can offer and the successes we have seen to these new commissioners," he said. The warning came as NHS figures released yesterday revealed success rates for patients using pharmacy services to quit smoking remained among the lowest between April and June this year.

Although pharmacy helped 33,000 patients to quit smoking during the three months, only 45 per cent of patients managed to stop smoking for good. By contrast, NHS stop smoking services had a 53 per cent success rate, while military bases had 56 per cent.

The low success rate was "disappointing", said Mr Buxton, but he reiterated that it did not take into account the patient demographics being targeted by each provider. "It is likely that some patients will be easier to support than others, and that community pharmacies will be helping patients who may not otherwise have access to healthcare."

Oxfordshire LPC chief officer Fiona Castle agreed that the type of patients using pharmacy stop smoking services may have an impact on the results. "Many pharmacies are recruiting from the lowest motivated group of patients," she told C+D.

The comments came as NICE released guidelines on Tuesday (October 23) advising the prescribing of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) to patients who are not prepared to quit smoking in one step.

GPs have previously been recommended to provide NRT for patients who have set a date to quit, but the latest guidelines have suggested pharmacists and GPs recommend "one or more NRT products to help them cut down to quit or smoke less".

"Offering a harm-reduction option may ultimately increase the number of people who quit smoking and can help them reduce the harm to smokers and those around them," the report said.