Stop smoking support in the hospital setting has developed rapidly over the past few years, with pockets of excellent local activity and examples of best practice. It remains an ideal and often missed opportunity to engage with the smokers who are often the most in need and difficult to reach. It has largely been identified in secondary care that there is a need to standardise and further develop referral and support systems.
The NCSCT CIC secondary care project started in January 2011. As part of the initial project scoping a short survey was sent out to hospital leads for smoking cessation in February 2011, aiming to gather baseline information of smoking related activity within hospitals - click here for the full report. A longer survey was sent out in March 2011 for anyone whose work involves supporting smokers in secondary care. This was designed to gain a more in depth picture of activity and support available in hospitals and to guide the development of the project - click here for the full report.
An interim report of the pre-implementation phase of the Department of Health's 'Stop Smoking Interventions in Secondary Case' pilot has been completed - click here for the report. A revised data collection tool has been disseminated to all remaining pilot sites for the continued collection of post-implementation data. A full report of this pilot will be completed by March 2012.
The NCSCT CIC's 'Streamlined Secondary Care System' is currently being piloted at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth. This pilot is testing a whole hospital approach to stop smoking support in secondary care, including the development and implementation of an innovative electronic referral system. A full report and evaluation will be completed in March 2012.
The resources currently available to support work in secondary care are the Department of Health ‘Stop Smoking Interventions in Secondary Care’ and the nine ‘clinical cases’ that have been developed covering diabetic, cardiovascular, respiratory, maternity, oncology, paediatric, orthopaedic, surgical patients, and wound care. These are all available below.
There is an 'NHS Network' for Stop Smoking Support in Secondary Care where members can ask questions and share information. The link for this is: http://www.networks.nhs.uk/nhs-networks/stop-smoking-support-in-secondary-care
British Thoracic Society Stop Smoking Champions Project
The British Thoracic Society has been funded by the Department of Health to recruit and maintain a network of stop smoking clinical champions in secondary care. The project started in October 2010 and is well underway with 93 champions recruited so far. To see a list of the appointed champions please click here. An information sheet has also been developed and will be updated as the project develops, please click here to view this. If you have any questions regarding the project or would like contact details of an appointed champion please contact Chris Routh:
Chris.Routh@brit-thoracic.org.uk
Project Contact:
Liz Hughes, Delivery Manager
Additional Resources: