Success rates for patients using pharmacy services to quit smoking remain among the lowest, despite being the third most popular service provider, NHS figures have shown.

Although pharmacy helped 69,796 people quit smoking between April and September 2011, only 44 per cent of those managed to stop smoking for good, the same success rate as the same period in 2010, results from the latest NHS Stop Smoking Services report show.

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By contrast, prisons had a 57 per cent successful quit rate, while military bases had 52 per cent. Primary care, the largest provider of smoking cessation services with 154,203 people signing up for help, had a 45 per cent success rate. Pharmacists were not impressed with their own smoking cessation results, with a C+D poll suggesting that more than half of contractors feel they are doing poorly with their success rates.

Only 17 per cent said they were happy with how their pharmacy was doing at helping people successfully quit smoking, while a third said their success rate could be better.

Annie Owen, armed forces smoking cessation co-ordinator, said she thought the reason for high success rates on military bases was partly down to health staff talking over the phone to patients who were sometimes unable to attend the clinics in person, as well as going out into the military community to raise awareness about their smoking cessation services.

"The main reason for the success has been the flexibility, as we can offer different times and different days for people to come in for support," she said. "We take the support out to the clients, rather than them having to come to us."

"If a soldier has to miss a session, the advisor would say, ‘call me on your mobile and we can talk through how you are doing," Mrs Owen added.

"If someone can just talk them through and give them some advice, even for a little while, to give them some advice, it makes a difference."

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