Each of those professions has an important role to play in giving the kind of smoking cessation advice which a modern health service ought to provide. Smokers need to be aware that those who know about health, advise against smoking. All health professionals working in hospital or community settings should assess smoking habits and provide advice to smokers on giving up, whenever possible. Now that we will be investing substantial resources in specialist services, health professionals will have something more to offer patients who smoke. But expert advice will still be needed from health professionals in the course of everyday appointments, check-ups and treatment.
Smoking is the biggest single threat to health faced by large sections of the population.
It is important that all health professionals provide simple advice to give up smoking on as routine a basis as possible. NRT on the NHS 4.14 To quit successfully, smokers also need to be strongly motivated and able to deal with the inevitable cravings for nicotine. That is where NRT comes in. A course of NRT provides the body with nicotine in decreasing doses until the craving is small enough to cope with. It also provides nicotine without any harmful smoke.