Smoking cessation resources

Your patient's chances of quitting increase by 20-30 per cent with medicines and kanohi ki te kanohi (face-to-face) support. It’s easy to refer patients who wish to quit, to your free local stop smoking service, and this should always go hand in hand when offering smoking brief advice.   

It is important for primary healthcare professionals to provide the best possible support for people who are wanting to quit smoking. We’d like to remind practices that offering smoking brief advice by sending out bulk messaging saves valuable time and money. A simple template could be:  

“Kia ora [patient’s first name], we would like to offer help for you to stop smoking, as it’s best for your health. Please reply with a number: 1. Accept, 2. Decline, 3. Already quit. Thanks [Medical Centre]”

Visit the Vensa website for more templates and resources.

With the help of practices, in the past 12 months our Once and For All stop smoking service has supported 1,006 people across Waikato to successfully quit smoking. Seventy per cent of these people identify as Māori and the majority were women between 20-29 years. Of these successful quitters, 83 were hāpu mama – we know the health benefits of quitting smoking during pregnancy for both mother and baby are huge, and this is excellent to see. 

Thank you for continuing to refer your Waikato patients. The Once and For All stop smoking service is available to anyone residing in Waikato who smokes and is wanting help to quit.

They can access free kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face) behavioural support to stop smoking. Patients can also access free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) from the service. Referrals to this free service can be made using the online form or a MedTech advanced form.