A new team offering hospital patients support to stop smoking has passed its first milestone.
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust launched its Inpatient Smokefree Service in April and has passed its first landmark of offering support and advice to 1,000 patients across its Whiston, St Helens, Newton, Southport and Ormskirk sites.
Patients are asked if they have smoked a cigarette within 28 days of their hospital admission and if the answer is yes, a member of the smokefree service will visit them and offer brief advice on the steps they could take to quit if they wanted to try.
Helen Morear, who heads the service for the Trust, said: “We know that 20,000 people who smoke are in hospital on any given day in the UK and many of those would like to quit but don’t always know how to get the support they need.
“We have been able to provide that support and we have seen more than 1,000 patients in our first six months of operating and had some really encouraging results.
“Of the patients we see we know that more than 50% of them want to quit smoking and of those more than seven out of 10 people wish to be referred to their community stop smoking service, which we do on their behalf.
“So far, we have helped nearly 300 people to quit after leaving hospital which is a great achievement for a new team.
“We are dedicated to giving everyone who wants to quit smoking the best support and guidance possible.’’
She added: “One patient we helped to quit recently was a 79-year-old woman who had smoked for more than 60 years.
“She had tried to give up smoking two times previously but with the help of the community stop smoking service she has now officially quit. She told us she feels like she has her life back and feels wonderful and that is why we do what we do.’’
The best way to stop smoking is with a combination of medication and support. Research tells us if you stay smokefree for 28-days, you’re 5 times more likely to stay quit for good.