Smoking cessation tool launched by ICGP

The Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) has launched an E-learning tool to encourage patients to give up smoking.

Created jointly by the ICGP, Irish Cancer Society, the National Cancer Control Programme and the HSE, the smoking cessation tool uses ‘brief interventions’ to broach the subject with every patient who smokes.

If a patient’s files show that they are a smoker, the doctor can use the tool to broach the topic of quitting smoking, using the ‘five As’ – Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist and Arrange, during individual consultations.

Nick Fenlon, the ICGP’s Director of Medical Education, said: “If a patient comes in and wants their blood pressure checked, you’ve got 15 minutes. You can take two minutes to bring up the question, ‘I see from your files that you used to be a smoker, are you still smoking?’ You’ve broached it; it’s a brief intervention.”

There are approximately one million smokers in Ireland, and GPs are in an ideal position to help patients quit smoking – the 2007 Slán Report stated that almost three quarters of smokers had attended their GP in the previous year.

The ICGP hopes to roll out the online tool to other health service workers in the future.