We are a friendly, community-based medical centre and we can help you quit smoking in a non-judgmental and supportive manner. Our vision is to provide quality, affordable health care and support for our West Auckland community.

Like most smokers and tobacco users, you know you should probably give up smoking, but just don’t know how to do it. At McLaren Park Medical Centre we encourage all our patients to be smoke free and we can provide advice and encouragement to stop smoking. If you are thinking about quitting, please feel free to come and see to one of our doctors or nurses for advice.

There are some excellent medications available to help you quit, and all the medications we use are now fully funded. Statistics show that using patches or medication greatly increases the chances of quitting, as well as reducing the torture of nicotine withdrawal.

There’s no one way to quit smoking that works for everyone. Going cold turkey may work for some people, but we think you’ll improve your chances of success when you enlist the help of your health care team.

One of the first steps of your quit-smoking action plan should be “get support.” Support can come from family, friends, your doctor, medications, patches, a counsellor, a support group or a telephone quit line.

Zyban:  this is a tablet taken twice daily for 3 months which allows you to stop smoking without having the nicotine withdrawals.  You take it for 2 weeks before you fully quit smoking to give the medicine time to get up and running. It is a fully funded medicine and easily available on prescription.

Champix:  for people who are unable to take Zyban this is also a fully funded medicine and easily available.  Like Zyban you take it for 2 weeks before you fully quit smoking to give the medicine time to get up and running

Nicotine patches and gum: You can wean off nicotine by swapping cigarettes for nicotine patches and gum.  The patches come in 3 strengths (high, medium and low) depending on how many cigarettes you are currently smoking.  You then wean off by gradually reducing the size of the patches – you can top up by using chewing gum as needed. These are fully funded on prescriptions

Vaping Nicotine:  this is something you have to buy yourself but can be another way to wean off cigarettes.  As it is the smoke in cigarettes that cause all the damage – not the nicotine –  vaping has a much lower risk of causing harm (estimated around 90% less harmful than cigarettes).  You can wean off the nicotine by using lower strength vaping liquids over time.

Support: It is useful during the process of quitting cigarettes to have support especially if you have questions or needing help with motivation to keep going.

• McLaren Park Medical Centre: we are here to help you and plan your quit smoking program
• Quit Line is a free telephone service to help you when you need it. Phone 0800 778 778
• Ready Steady Quit is the stop smoking service in Auckland & Waitematā. This face-to-face service is free to people who have decided to stop smoking. Phone:  0800 500 601

Stopping smoking is the best gift you can give yourself and your family. It can take a smoker several attempts to quit; the message is to keep trying even if you have been unsuccessful in the past because you will win in the end!

We’re committed to our community. Get in touch and we’ll talk about a quit smoking plan that works for you.