Across the nation the number of people who successfully quit smoking has trebled over the last three years. In Wiltshire 3,000 people stopped smoking during 2010 – and that’s four times the number who stopped in 2000.
This achievement – making people healthier and saving the NHS a great deal of money – is partly down to the work of NHS Wiltshire’s Stop Smoking Service which has been working more closely with individuals and groups who are not always particularly keen to give up their habit.
This local service supports people using a variety of methods and treatments, providing specialist support for groups such as pregnant women, people with mental health problems and young people. The team of advisers work at GOP surgeries and health centres, clinics, pharmacies, children’s centres and in hospitals.
Darrell Gale, a consultant in public health at NHS Wiltshire, reports that nearly 5,000 people used the Wiltshire Stop Smoking Service last year – and sixty per cent of them quit. That beats the national average success rate of fifty per cent.
Gale says: “People aren’t always successful the first time round, and those who sadly did not achieve the quit they set out for can always try again using the same method or a different one, and are warmly welcomed by the service. Our aim is to make Wiltshire a healthier place to live and there are many more people we can help to quit.”
