The Society's involvement in Smoking Cessation has a long history, and we have seen a major new development in the past year with the establishment of the BTS Stop Smoking Champions programme. This is a UK-wide initiative supported by a small project grant by the Department of Health in England. The project is being managed by the Society's Tobacco Specialist Advisory Group, which has now consolidated the work of BASSP- the Association for Stop Smoking Professionals.
To date we have recruited 105 Champions (January 2012). We aim to have one in each Acute Trust in the UK before the end of March. Contact us if you wish to join us - bts@brit-thoracic.org.uk.
Stop Smoking Champions will:-
- Liaise with Management and Consultant Colleagues to raise the profile of smoking cessation
- Take a lead in developing Hospital Strategy on maintenance of the Smoke Free environment
- Develop a CQUIN for incentivising stop smoking activity in the Trust
- Assess specific hospital requirements and plan appropriately for quit smoking services
- Provideclinical supervision and support to staff involved in referrals or prescription of smoking cessation medication
- Provide education and training to junior doctors and other front-line staff
- Audit outcomes annually.
Annual Meeting of the BTS Stop Smoking Champions
The meeting on 11th October 2011 was attended by 70 BTS Stop Smoking Champions.
Find the presentations from the meeting here
Interested in being a Champion? Contact bts@brit-thoracic.org.uk
A Stop Smoking CQUIN
Colleagues in England may find it helpful to consult the case for a Stop Smoking CQUIN for acute hospital inpatients which was developed by colleagues in the NHS London Respiratory team in 2011, which is presented here with thanks and acknowledgements.
Core Competencies - Health Professionals and Tobacco - A Toolkit
Although most professionals dealing with the consequences of smoking know it is the commonest preventable cause of death in the UK, how many of us are really effective in helping people stop? This toolkit (Powerpoint format) provides many of the background facts, and outlines the skills and attitudes for any audience. Additional sections are included for prescribers and for assessment. Dr Myra Stern has updated (June 2011) the popular toolkit that was developed in 2007 by Drs Elin Roddy and David Ross. This is available free to download as a Powerpoint presentation with speakers' notes here
Audit
The Tobacco SAG plans to develop a new audit tool for Smoking Cessation Champions and others to use. In the meantime, we are grateful to colleagues from the Whittington Hospital in London for sharing with us the outcome of their recent audit which demonstrates the importance of audit and some of the lessons learned.
Download the Powerpoint presentation here.
Plain Packs
SIgn up here www.plainpacksprotect.co.uk