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 (February 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.
A map showing the location of Stop Smoking Champions (February 2012) is available here.
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.
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The Champions Planning Group met in early February 2012 and developed a plan of action which involves developing all of the undernoted work which was started in 2011. Priority has been given to two areas in the first part of 2012 - the Case for Change document described below and the collection of examples of tools and strategies that work for you in your hospitals- with patients, clinical colleagues and managers. These will be promoted on this part of the website. Please send to us via the ""Contact Us" button above.
Work is also well in hand in relation to the production of the updated BTS Recommendations for the Provision of Stop Smoking Services in Respiratory Care, which will be available in April 2012.
The Case for Change - to underpin bids to hospital managers and commissioners for the support and funding of a dedicated , ongoing, comprehensive Stop Smoking Service in every hospital in the UK. Work has begun on this document and WE NEED YOUR HELP! Let us know if this has already happened in your hospital and what arguments were used. Please use the "Contact Us" button above.
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 provides many of the background facts, and outlines the skills and attitudes for any audience. Additional sections are included for prescribers and for assessment. It was updated in June 2011 and more work is being done to bring it up to date over the Spring of 2012. It 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.
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Plain Packs
SIgn up here www.plainpacksprotect.co.uk
Inaugural Conference of the BTS Stop Smoking Champions 11th October 2011
Find the presentations from the meeting here