Commentary on the new English smoking cessation Advanced service: a sustainable gateway to care or will it disappear in a puff of smoke?

Abstract

Further to plans to make England 'smoke-free' by 2030, a new English community pharmacy smoking cessation service was launched in March 2022. The service includes offering people admitted to hospital an opportunity to enrol on a smoking cessation service that allows care to be maintained through their community pharmacy upon discharge. There is a high expectation for this service, which is expected to increase 1-year quit rates by 11% and in its first year, save the UK NHS £85 million in healthcare resources. The service also offers opportunities for pharmacists to assume a greater role in managing the long-term care of smokers. However, as with any new service, without careful monitoring of the implementation, there may be unforeseen and unintended consequences for what are otherwise well-intentioned actions. For instance, despite existing smoking cessation services being effective, historically there has always been poor smoker uptake, particularly people from less affluent backgrounds and from marginalised groups. Questions also arise about service adoption and implementation and how the risks associated with transitions between care providers will be managed. This timely commentary explores and examines these issues. Specifically, we add to the debate by focusing on the extent to which the new service caters or enables people from disadvantaged groups to participate fully. The challenges of adoption and implementation in pharmacies are discussed as well as the strategies to overcome foreseeable problems that might arise during transitions of care.

Keywords: community pharmacy; stop smoking advance service; transition of care.