Quitting smoking will be easier: nurses already prescribe drugs in CAPs

BarcelonaThe tobacco epidemic is a public health threat that claims about 10,000 lives in Catalonia every year. Different strategies are being implemented to combat it, such as the smoking cessation drugs that have been partially funded by Social Security for the past five years. These are drugs that multiply the chances of success by two or three of smokers who want to quit this addictive habit. Until now, if someone wanted to quit, they had to go to the primary care centre (CAP) and the family doctor could prescribe them a medication. As the ARA Catalunya has been able to find out, it modified its protocols at the end of 2024 and, since last December, nurses can also prescribe medications to help people quit smoking.

The measure responds to the decision that the Spanish government also took last year to expand the powers of nurses so that they could prescribe more medications and thus give them more responsibilities and, at the same time, reduce the workload for doctors. In this way, since the Catalan CAPs began to work with this new protocol, nurses have prescribed thousands of treatments. Specifically, according to the data consulted by this newspaper, between December 9 and January 31, Catalan nurses have already prescribed a medication to stop smoking to 7,637 patients.

To put this into context, last year in Catalonia doctors prescribed more than 100,000 drugs to stop smoking. This January, however, which is the first month in which the measure is already fully operational, 12,277 drugs have been prescribed, of which 6,091 have been prescribed by doctors and 6,186 by nurses. According to the Department of Health, this initiative of the Spanish government that they have implemented in their protocols ""improves access to medication for citizens" and "strengthens the autonomy of nurses."

To receive a prescription for one of these quit smoking medications, it is necessary to make an appointment with primary care and only those smokers who have not received another funded medication in the last year can benefit from it. Those currently funded by the health system use the active ingredient varenicline (brand names Byteqi, Cuitvar and Normon) or the active ingredient cytisinicline (brand names Recigarum and Todacitan).

Support beyond treatment

With this decision, Catalan nurses have more powers in the fight against tobacco, since they can not only prescribe the medicines, but also reinforce the tasks they already do with patients who want to stop smoking. Apart from prescribing the treatments, these professionals accompany the patients, provide them with personalized follow-up to improve adherence to the treatment, monitor the impact that the therapy has on their health and watch for the appearance of any contraindicated effects.

In the event that alarm symptoms appear such as persistence of the withdrawal syndrome, serious adverse effects to the treatment or consumption of other drugs, among others, it is also the nurses who will assess together with a doctor whether it is necessary to stop the therapy to stop smoking.

Smoking is in the sights of all health authorities because for years they have not managed to reduce the number of smokers, which remains stable despite prevention efforts and, in addition, new forms of smoking have appeared such as vapers and heated tobacco that work as a gateway of this addictive habit for the new generations. For this reason, the Ministry of Health has proposed to toughen the current regulations, prohibit smoking in spaces such as the terraces of bars and restaurants, include new products to limit their access and deploy neutral packaging, that is, that all brands have the same appearance so that they are less attractive to buyers.

The Government has stated on several occasions that it is aligned with the policies that the Ministry of Health wants to promote. In fact, the current Secretary of Public Health, Esteve Fernández, dedicated a good part of his career to the control of smoking before taking office and now that he is responsible for the public health policies of the Generalitat he has already explained that he wants to focus on prevention, especially among minors, and guarantee new smoke-free spaces.