Eccles Health Centre now offers nicotine-replacement therapy

The Ministry of Health’s Chronic Disease Unit on Wednesday handed over a quantity of nicotine- replacement therapy (NRT) supplies to the Eccles Health Centre to support smoking cessation efforts.
This initiative has been taken in observance of World No Tobacco Day, being observed today, and is aimed at raising awareness about the dangers of smoking and the harmful use of tobacco products.
The Eccles Health Centre, located on the East Bank Demerara (EBD) corridor, is the first facility to receive these supplies as part of the treatment programme of the MoH.

Last year in observance of World No Tobacco Day, a tobacco cessation clinic was launched at the Industry Health Centre, East Coast Demerara (ECD), as a measure to help tobacco users quit smoking. This initiative was later rolled out at nine other health facilities. These clinics are located at health centres in Craig, Grove, Buxton, East La Penitence, Lodge, Festival City, Industry, Enmore and Kitty.
Through the clinic, healthcare workers would use the ‘five A’ strategy to encourage patients to quit smoking. As such, patients would be asked about tobacco use at every visit, and their status would be recorded, followed by the patient’s commitment to quit within 30 days of the first visit.
At the clinics, advice would be provided and personalised in a manner that would persuade every tobacco user to stop using tobacco, non-tobacco users to remain tobacco-free, while assisting and helping all tobacco users to stop using same based on their willingness.
With the Eccles Health Centre now being added to the collection, the nicotine replacement therapy will be a new addition to the tobacco cessation clinics, and tobacco users would gradually reduce their nicotine dependence, making it easier to quit smoking and improve overall health. The nine other health centres are expected to have this addition within a month.
In her remarks, Technical Officer for Tobacco, Dr Shelieza Gopie, noted that with the NRT, instead of smoking, tobacco users would be given nicotine lozenges, “which are like little candies you let dissolve in your mouth”. She added that the lozenges come in different flavours, and help to reduce the cravings for cigarettes without exposing users to harmful (toxic) chemicals.
Director of the Non-Communicable Disease Programme, Dr Lachmie Lall, has said this move is part of the Pan American Health Organization’s package to achieve tobacco control and reduce smoking rates in Guyana.
Also present at the handover ceremony were Chronic Disease Unit Coordinator Dr. Dianele Drepaul and Acting Doctor in Charge, Dr. Michelle Singh-Sarran.