NHS Stop Smoking
A 12-week pharmacist-led programme. Free NRT (patches plus a fast-acting product), weekly carbon-monoxide monitoring, and proper behavioural support. Combining NRT with weekly chat roughly doubles your chance of quitting vs going cold-turkey.
How effective is it really?
The hard data (Cochrane reviews):
- Cold turkey — about 4% of attempts succeed long-term.
- Single NRT alone (patches OR gum) — about 7-10%.
- Combination NRT (patch + gum/spray/inhalator) — about 15-17%.
- Combination NRT + weekly behavioural support (what we do) — about 15-22%.
The structured support is the multiplier. Not magic. Just evidence-based, and free.
What's included free
- Weekly 10-minute pharmacist appointments for the first 12 weeks.
- Combination NRT supplied free — typically a long-acting patch plus a short-acting product (gum, lozenge, spray, inhalator) for cravings between patch doses.
- Carbon monoxide breath test at each visit — you'll watch your CO level drop week by week. Hugely motivating, and proof your lungs are clearing.
- Personalised quit plan — managing trigger situations, weight changes, sleep, mood, returning smokers (most people relapse at least once — counting attempts, not failure, is the right framing).
- Vaping bridge support if appropriate — NHS endorses vaping as a harm-reduction route. We can help you set up an e-cigarette plan and then ladder down using NRT.
Your 12 weeks
- Week 0 — enrolment. Walk in or phone. 20-minute first appointment: history, set a quit date (usually within 1 week), pick the right NRT combination, baseline CO reading.
- Quit date. You stop. Patches start. We're 24/7 by WhatsApp for the tough first 72 hours.
- Weeks 1-4 — weekly check-ins. 10-minute pharmacist sessions. CO reading. Dose adjustments to NRT. Triggers and craving management. Most relapses happen here — most are recoverable.
- Weeks 5-8 — fortnightly check-ins. Patches typically reduced in strength. Fast-acting NRT used for residual cravings.
- Weeks 9-12 — stepping down. NRT tapered. You're a non-smoker now — we're consolidating the win and building you a plan for the next 12 months.
- 12-month follow-up. Quick check-in by phone. By now you're statistically very likely to stay quit, but we're here if relapse happens.
Already quit and starting to slip? Walk in. Re-enrolment is free. We don't count it as a failure — we count it as your next attempt. Most successful quitters needed 3-5 attempts. Persistence is the whole game.
Want to know what you'd save? Try our quit-smoking savings calculator — breaks down day/week/month/year savings. The health gains are bigger, but the money tends to make the case feel concrete.