This letter published in the New Zealand Medical Journal discusses smoking cessation in hospitals and the need to improve the degree of integration and follow-up with cessation support services outside of hospitals following discharge.
Key messages include:
Achieving the Ministry of Health’s “Better Help for Smokers to Quit” targets is good, but there is a need to think of more challenging targets e.g. the proportion of smokers who give up in hospital and are still quit after xx weeks/months, or perhaps the proportion who give up and who are followed up by Quitline, or primary care/community-based cessation support.
The Ministry should be working with DHBs to ensure that integration between the hospital based and community based (inc Quitline) cessation support occurs so that evidence based practice is put in place.
Further Information
For more information or to request a copy of the letter, please contact:
Professor Richard Edwards
University of Otago, Wellington
email richard.edwards@otago.ac.nz