A pharmacy is urging people to sign a petition opposing Harrow Council’s proposed cuts to stop-smoking services.

The council plans to withdraw its smoking cessation service on April 1 next year because of financial belt-tightening, despite admitting the service has helped 1,751 people quit smoking since April 2013.

All stop-smoking programmes, including tobacco awareness campaigns aimed at children, will cease if the cuts go ahead.

A petition to prevent the cuts, started by Northwick Park doctor Tara Sathyamoorthy, has so far garnered nearly 800 signatures. 2,000 are needed to trigger a full council session to further discuss the savings proposal.

“I see the devastating impact that smoking has on the lives of patients,” she said.

“The short term saving for the council would be £279,000 but, because of smoking-related diseases, the longer term economic costs would be much greater.”

Staff at Shaftesbury Pharmacy agree that the short-term council savings of £279,000 would be greatly outweighed by the long-term cost to the NHS if the service is slashed.

“We, at Shaftesbury Pharmacy, have advised hundreds of smokers to quit, by guiding and counselling them with weekly face-to-face consultations,” said superintendent pharmacist Lila Thakerar.

“These are people who were at risk of developing lung disease, and eventually being hospitalised, costing the NHS a lot more to treat these patients.”

The consultation to gauge public opinion is open until November 3, and can be found at www.harrow.gov.uk/smokingconsultation

The petition can be found here.