Our Tobacco Dependency Service is now available at both hospitals to support inpatients coping with nicotine withdrawal.
Kate Frost, middle, is leading on implementation. She said: "We have two tobacco dependence advisors - Shannon and Derran. Their role is to support patients with nicotine replacement therapy during their stay in hospital.
"Our patients deserve the very best service and help for their inpatient stay.
“Setting up the NHS long term plan for tobacco services has been a challenge. But the biggest challenge is to come, seeing results for all patients who are smokers and have received care, and who are also successful in either cutting down or stopping smoking completely. I am looking forward to seeing results once fully established across all wards and departments.”
The NHS Long Term Plan states that by 2023/24, NHS-funded tobacco treatment services will be offered to:
- anyone admitted overnight to hospital who smokes
- pregnant women and members of their household
- long-term users of specialist mental health services
There were a few challenges along the way, however, Kate preferred to think of a solution to any problem.
“I kept it simple and worked with what we had,” Kate says. “We had a good team and used this to achieve what was needed to pull everything together.”
This included using the digital platforms already in place to collect the data and talking to partners about making it as simple as possible to accept referrals.
Kate adds: “This worked because we all have the same vison of patients being at the heart of what we do. We pulled together and prioritised what was important, escalated problems quickly and thought of different solutions so we were able to launch the service.”
The service model in place intercepts patients when they are admitted onto acute wards.
She adds: “By engaging with patients face-to-face, providing them with advice from our trained National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT) colleagues and offering ongoing support we can make sure it’s a smooth transition into community services and provide the best ongoing treatment and support.”