Smoking services must be priority
Primary care trusts need to make smoking cessation services a priority, the Healthcare Commission argues in a new report.
“No
ifs, no buts — improving services for tobacco control” looks
at primary care trusts’ success at reducing smoking through “tobacco
control”, which includes smoking cessation services, support for
smoke-free workplaces, reducing under-age sales of tobacco, education
about the harmful effects of smoking, reducing tobacco advertising and
reducing the availability of contraband tobacco products.
The report found that, although all PCTs were getting the basics right,
the trusts that scored highly had a number of factors in common. They
collected data and learnt from it, consulted patients and the public,
engaged in partnerships with local agencies and targeted their own staff
for tobacco control services.
The Healthcare Commission recommends, therefore, that all PCTs follow
this lead. PCTs should make tobacco control a priority and their commissioning
frameworks should reflect this, it says.
They should ensure that the services they commission follow National
Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines and are based
on evidence of their effectiveness. They should champion the health benefits
of not smoking. And they should improve their knowledge of the local
community and its needs and ensure effective data collection is carried
out. In turn, the Government should, the report says, develop a means
of establishing reliable local and national figures for smoking prevalence.
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The
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