Smoking Cessation (Advanced) Service
The NHS Community Pharmacy Smoking Cessation Service (SCS) was launched on 10th March 2022 as an Advanced Service.
This service has been designed to enable NHS Trusts to undertake a transfer of care on patient discharge, referring patients (where they consent) to a community pharmacy of their choice to continue their smoking cessation treatment, including providing medication and support as required.
The service can only be provided by a pharmacist or pharmacy technician.
All of the key information about this service can be found on the Community Pharmacy England Smoking Cessation Webpage.
Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire is working closely with the local NHS Trusts as they start to make referrals into community pharmacy. Please see below for the latest status update on which Trusts are live with sending referrals to the SCS.
SCS Trust Status Update – July 2024
Resources
- Service Specification
- Patient Flow Diagram
- Guidance on the Smoking Cessation Advanced Service, July 2023
- Pharmacy Owner Checklist – Implementing the Smoking Cessation Advanced Service
- Briefing for Pharmacy Teams on the Smoking Cessation Advanced Service
- SCS Service Summary – January 2024
PharmOutcomes
Outcomes of the referral and consultations should be recorded on PharmOutcomes. PharmOutcomes is free of charge and will allow pharmacies to report back to those Trusts that are using the SCS PharmOutcomes module. As well as supporting referrals directly into PharmOutcomes (e.g. for Trusts using PharmOutcomes to send referrals), PharmOutcomes can also be used for the processing of manual referrals sent to the pharmacy via NHS mail (use the “referral and registration template”).
PharmOutcomes has confirmed that an API is in place which facilitates the transfer of data to the MYS platform and supports claims for payment (see under payment and claims).
See this useful video guide on how to use PharmOutcomes for the Smoking Cessation Service: https://media.pharmoutcomes.org/video.php?name=NHSSmokingCessationService-CommunityPharmacy
Funding & Claims
The pharmacy will receive a £1000 set up fee (which will be paid following registration on MYS to provide the service, having declared the pharmacy is ready to provide the service and relevant staff have undertaken the essential training as specified in section 3 of the service specification).
The pharmacy will also receive the below consultation fees:
- Initial consultation – £30
- Interim consultations – £10
- Final consultation – £40
NRT will be supplied to the patient free of charge. Pharmacy contractors will be reimbursed in accordance with the drug tariff determination.
All claims for service provision should be made monthly via the NHSBSA Manage Your Service (MYS) portal. PharmOutcomes will prepopulate the claims information in MYS each month based on service activity recorded, however, this will not automatically submit the claim. Contractors will need to login to MYS at the start of the following month to confirm that the information is correct and to submit the claim.
Claims for payment should be submitted by the 5th day of the following month after completion of the SCS, in accordance with the usual Drug Tariff claims process, and no later than three months from the claim period for the chargeable activity provided. Claims which relate to work completed more than three months after the claim period in question, will not be paid.
Post-Event Messages
A summary of the outcomes of the service provision must be provided to both the patient’s GP and the referring trust. Appendices D & E of the service specification outline the core data set which must be sent. Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire has developed the letter templates below which could be used to send the required feedback to practices and trusts.
Post-Event Message – NHS Trust Tobacco Dependency Team
Trust Contact Details
Please see below a list of the contact details for the local Trust Tobacco Dependency teams for post-event messaging or to contact for support if needed:
Other Useful Resources
- VirtualOutcomes (free for all West Yorkshire pharmacy teams): Pharmacy Team Training
- CPPE also has a suite of resources in relation to smoking cessation.
Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire held an event to support West Yorkshire pharmacies who are registered to provide the SCS and West Yorkshire pharmacies who haven’t signed up to the service but want to know more about the service before signing up via MYS. The presentation and recording of the event can be found below.
Last Updated: 12th July 2024
