The Quit Pod – impact and presence in secondary care
| Author(s)
Andrea Dickens, Laura Ridout and Elaine Watson
| | Presenter(s) |
Andrea Dickens Deputy Director, Smokefree South West, Bristol |
Laura Ridout Development Manager, Smokefree South West, Bristol | Abstract Smokefree South West funded a Quit Pod, placed in an area of high footfall, in Gloucester Royal Hospital. The Quit Pod, with its eye catching fresh design in the main atrium of the hospital, has been a huge success in attracting staff, patients and visitors. Staffed 9 – 5pm five days a week, NHS Gloucestershire offer proactive stop smoking support on site and provide guidance on how to manage withdrawal. As well as raising the profile of availability of stop smoking support, referrals have seen a two third increase since the introduction of the pod with an average of 58.5% success rate in quitting.
With a high footfall and smokefree policies that ban smoking on trust sites, secondary care offers a huge potential to reach smokers. Smokefree South West has worked closely with trust boards and local services to achieve full engagement with all 21 South West trusts to provide and promote smokefree environments.
Attend this workshop to learn how we have overcome the initial barriers and difficulties in introducing the pod, how we increased referrals and quits from secondary care and how we have learned to make it cost efficient to staff.
| Presenter biography Andrea Dickens is currently Deputy Director and the Head of Policy, Innovation and Development for Smokefree South West.
Passionate about tobacco control, she has been involved in the field since 2000 when she worked for the pilot programmes which went on to become the All Wales Smoking Cessation Service (later Stop Smoking Wales).
Laura Ridout has worked in public health for fourteen years and before working for Smokefree South West managed a Stop Smoking Service in Somerset. Laura is the lead for secondary care and has worked with 21 hospitals in the South West in implementing smokefree signage and systems.
| Source of funding: Smokefree South West
| Declaration of interest: None
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