Smoking cessation services in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde – making the grade
Elizabeth Grant, Public Health Pharmacist, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, UK

Abstract
HEAT targets are a set of national targets and measures developed by the Scottish Government as part of the implementation of Delivering for Health (2005). Through smoking cessation services board-wide, we aim to see 8% of Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s smoking population successfully quitting (at four weeks post quit) by 2011. Since 1 October 2008, all NRT products should be prescribed by community pharmacists either directly or by a referral from the Smoking Cessation Advisor. Only in special circumstances should NRT be prescribed on a GP10. The reasons for this are threefold:

• provision for NRT supply is covered by the pharmaceutical health services contract
• historically, many patients prescribed NRT on a GP10 are not linked into a recognised cessation service and thus miss out on support which is crucial to a successful quit attempt and consequently
• these data are then not available to be captured on the HEAT database.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has one of the most well established smoking cessation services in the country. While we are heartened by the outcomes to date, we would like to do even better in terms of recording data and adherence to guidelines.