Posted on: 16 June 2023
Calderdale and Huddersfield Acute inpatients has gone live with their Tobacco Dependency Service. Kate Frost, who is leading on implementation for the trust, tells us more.
“Hello, my name is Kate Frost, I work for Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust (CHFT) as an Operations Manager in the Directorate of Resilience, Acute Flow and Transformation. We have two tobacco dependence advisors Shannon and Derran.
“Setting up the NHS long term plan for tobacco services has been a challenge. But the biggest challenge is to come, seeing results for all patients who are smokers and have received care, and who are also successful in either cutting down or stopping smoking completely. I am looking forward to seeing results once fully established across all wards and departments.”
The NHS Long Term Plan states that by 2023/24, NHS-funded tobacco treatment services will be offered to:
- anyone admitted overnight to hospital who smokes
- pregnant women and members of their household
- long-term users of specialist mental health services
Kate adds: “Having one project lead dedicated and focused giving full attention to the project has enabled CHFT to initially set up and get the service running.”
Collaboration with colleagues and partners has been key.
“Our approach was to start the project and not wait! Our patients deserve the best service and the help needed for their inpatient stay. This was important to me,” says Kate.
There were a few problems along the way. However, Kate says she doesn’t believe in obstacles and likes to think of a solution to a problem.
“I kept it simple and worked with what we had,” Kate says. “We had a good team and used this to achieve what was needed to pull everything together.”
This included using the digital platforms already in place to collect the data and talking to partners about making it as simple as possible to accept referrals.
Kate adds: “This worked because we all have the same vison of patients being at the heart of what we do. We pulled together and prioritised what was important, escalated problems quickly and thought of different solutions so we were able to launch the service.”
The service model in place intercepts patients when they are admitted onto acute wards.
“By engaging with patients face-to-face, providing them with advice from our trained National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT) colleagues and offering ongoing support we can make sure it’s a smooth transition into community services and provide the best ongoing treatment and support.”