George is planning the public health activity for the autumn. The national campaign for October is Stoptober – the annual focus on encouraging people to stop smoking. The pharmacy has used the national campaign as a focus to promote smoking cessation services for a number of years. 

This year George has looked at local data and can see that smoking in pregnancy is more prevalent locally than for the rest of the UK, so he has decided to run a secondary campaign targeting pregnant women. 

He plans a number of interventions:

• Using a carbon monoxide analyser with customers who are considering quitting smoking 
• Displaying ‘smoking in pregnancy’ leaflets and posters from the charity Tommy’s, in the window and the health promotion zone
• Playing a video produced specifically to help pregnant women quit smoking on a loop in the waiting area when the antenatal clinic is on in the surgeries – this is when most pregnant women visit the pharmacy
• Asking the pharmacy team to undertake a brief intervention with every pregnant customer who attends the pharmacy during the campaign.

To evaluate the campaign he has asked the team to make a note of every pregnant customer they ask about smoking and their response. Those customers who want support to quit will be referred to George or the smoking cessation advisor. They will make a record of everyone who sets a quit date and then follow up with them in four weeks to see how they are doing.