At the ADHB meeting yesterday I had the pleasure of listening to a great presentation by Jan Marshall, the smokefree coordinator. This very worthwhile campaign is now targeting patients as well as staff. In the modern approach, smoking is seen as an addiction and overcoming that addiction uses a combination of approaches. Nurses are encouraged to discuss smoking addiction with their patients and give them strategies to overcome it. I was gratified to see that a key strategy is Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) indicating that the health professionals in this field, such as Jan, have reached a consensus that this is the best approach.
You can sign up for NRT with the Quitline (Phone 0800 778 778) and your GP can point you in that direction. coming soon, your GP will be able to sign you up. At the meeting there were good suggestions to get senior medical staff to add their strong voice to campaign. I think this is an excellent example of cooperation to solve a nasty health problem.
I have a personal interest in this since, despite being a vehemently anti-smoking whanau, one of my sons is a smoker and is about to go on NRT.
Posted by Kevin 
