From the Irish Cancer Society website, May 30th 2018

To mark “World No Tobacco Day”, The Irish Cancer Society is calling on the Government to make sure medical card holders don’t face unnecessary barriers to accessing Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT).

Donal Buggy, Head of Services and Advocacy at the Irish Cancer Society said: “At the moment, people with medical cards need a prescription from their GP to get quit supports like NRT.  This puts up an extra barrier for people who want to quit, and can place additional pressure on GP services.”

Currently, people without medical cards can purchase NRT without prescription.

“This means that medical card holders, who are often from the most deprived areas and are twice as likely to smoke as those living in the most affluent ones1, can find it difficult to get the support they need.  We’re calling for the Minister for Health to introduce legislation to make sure they no longer need to get a prescription for NRT.”

A recent survey carried out by the Irish Cancer Society showed that 3 in 5 people are in favour of removing the need for a prescription for NRT for medical card holders, while almost 3 in 5 felt that the state should do more to support smokers to quit.

“People need support on their mission to quit smoking for good and we need to encourage greater use of NRT to help smokers to quit and stay quit. Pharmacies need to be equipped, not only to dispense NRT, but also to provide the psychological supports most likely to ensure that a quit attempt is successful.”

At any given time, the majority of smokers are thinking about quitting, and most have made a number of unsuccessful attempts to quit. In Ireland, half of those attempting to quit do so without assistance but those who access NRT along with psychological supports are significantly more likely to quit and stay quit3.

“We know that all forms of NRT make it more likely that attempts to quit succeed. The chances of stopping smoking are increased by 50 to 70%.”

Currently, of the 3.76 million people aged over 15 living in Ireland, 22%, or just under 864,000, are smokers. The Government has set a smoking rate of less than 5% by 2025 in its Tobacco-Free Ireland Strategy.

Mr Buggy said: “To achieve this ambitious target, we need to make sure that 676,000 fewer people smoke in Ireland by then.  While there is no one action that will make a this a reality, allowing equal access to NRT for medical card holders will go some way to enabling current smokers to become ex-smokers.”