‘Can I help you quit?’ One simple question makes a big difference

Dr Paul Kavanagh asks in the course of your working day, what else can you do which offers more potential to make such a powerful positive impact on a patient’s health than talking to them about their smoking habit? 2016 has offered us a lot to reflect on. But in all the busy ‘year in review’ commentary, the impact of the tobacco epidemic on people’s health went unmarked. So let’s remind ourselves. The figures were set out starkly in an assessment published in 2016 by the Department of Health. Some 6,000 deaths were attributable to smoking and secondhand smoke exposure…