Evaluation of NHS-funded tobacco dependence services
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Supporting the NHS Long Term Plan: An evaluation of the implementation and impact of NHS-funded tobacco dependence services
IRAS ID
303618
Contact name
Eileen Kaner
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 31 days
Research summary
In 2019, 14.1% of adults in the England smoked. Over 500,000 hospital admissions were related to smoking in 2020 in the UK. The NHS Long Term Plan is a government policy aiming to tackle smoking through delivering a new service to support smokers to quit, in three settings: acute hospital, mental health inpatients and maternity. Here, smokers who are admitted to any of these settings in England will be offered access to a new ‘stop smoking service’ that includes both behavioural support and medication to help them to quit. Our project aims to investigate how this new service is delivered, and explore its impact on health and care. We will achieve this through three studies, conducted in five regions in England:
1. Surveying and interviewing NHS staff about their experiences of providing this service. We will also interview service users who have been offered the new service to understand their opinions and/or experiences of it.
2. Use hospital records to find out the number of smokers who have been offered and used the service, and how effective the new service is based on the number of people quitting smoking.
3. Using hospital records and existing data to calculate the costs of providing the service and find out whether it provides value in helping people who smoke.
The findings from this study will support NHS Trusts’ service delivery by providing early key findings and practical recommendations in ‘real-time’ (e.g., identified barriers and facilitators to implementation of the service) for the future from the perspectives of service users, healthcare professionals, and others. We aim to write several articles which will be shared widely; for example, with healthcare professionals, policymakers, researchers, and members of the public.
REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
22/WA/0203
Date of REC Opinion
26 Jul 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion