The Essex Wellbeing Service is working with pharmacies across Essex to offer free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) to help smokers quit.

ESSEX, UNITED KINGDOM, September 23, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Essex Wellbeing Service, commissioned by Essex County Council, is working with pharmacies across Essex to offer free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) to help smokers quit.

Stoptober is a nationwide campaign that asks people to begin their stop smoking journey by quitting for 28 days during October. The Essex Wellbeing Service is encouraging smokers to visit their local participating pharmacies where they will be offered weekly supplies of NRT for up to eight weeks. The NRT is a part of a package which includes proven behavioural support from trained staff.

The initiative is expected to boost the service’s already impressive success in the county, where over 16,259 people have quit in the last four years with the team. The Essex Wellbeing Service is also offering behaviour change support if an individual chooses to quit with an e-cigarette, and a variety of stop smoking products can be issued when needed.

Ellen Van Gemmert, who leads the Essex Wellbeing Service within Provide said: ‘Stoptober has proven to be a helpful prompt for smokers to consider breaking the habit. We urge anyone contemplating stopping to contact us as we know people are far more likely to quit when they access medication and behavioural support, and with our free offer, there really is nothing to lose.’

Danny Showell, Public Health Consultant at ECC said: ‘The best time to give up smoking is always ‘now’. There is lots of help available, such as that offered by the Essex Wellbeing Service. Taking up this free support quadruples a person’s chance of successfully quitting.’

Smokers are encouraged to visit the Essex Wellbeing Service website at www.essexwellbeingservice.co.uk or call 0300 303 9988 for information on participating pharmacies and terms and conditions. If you’d like to know more about the many ways you can stop smoking with free help, email provide.essexwellbeing@nhs.net.

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For additional information, images or interviews please contact Maddy Trigg maddy@thewriteimpression.co.uk 01473 326907
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Featured Image: The Essex Wellbeing Service Logo

Notes for Editors

Stoptober 2021

Useful information and tips from the National Stoptober campaign are available from:www.smokefree.nhs.uk/stoptober
The Essex Wellbeing Service is part of Provide. Click here to visit the Provide website (www.provide.org.uk) and find out more.
Provide is a staff-owned community interest company (often referred to as a social enterprise). It was established in April 2011 and delivers community health and care services across Essex, outer northeast London, and East Anglia.
We currently employ around 950 people in frontline roles (such as doctors, nurses and therapists) and in supporting roles (such as receptionists, booking clerks and facilities staff). We deliver a wide range of services, these include: community nursing, stroke rehabilitation, physiotherapy, specialist services for children and people with long term conditions, healthy lifestyles services (such as stop smoking services) and sexual health services. Our care services enable people to live independent lives.
Our staff deliver care from three community hospitals (Halstead Hospital, Braintree Community Hospital, and St Peter's Hospital in Maldon) as well as from community clinics and in people’s homes. They are committed to delivering safe, effective and compassionate care and to ensuring that those who use our services have a positive patient experience.
We share the ethos and values of the NHS and many of the benefits available to our staff are equivalent, or comparable, to those in NHS organisations.
As a community interest company any surplus that our staff make, by working more innovatively and effectively, is reinvested into our services and/or the local communities that we serve.
Provide’s services are commissioned by the NHS, local councils, the education sector and the charity/voluntary sector. Its services are regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the organisation contributes to the wider public health agenda in its local communities.

Kate Everett
The Write Impression
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