Events

Sharing findings from the evaluation of the Tobacco Dependency Treatment Offer for NHS staff in the North East and North Cumbria

Tuesday 23 April

10 am – 11.30 am

Online

This event has been convened by the Integrated Care Board (ICB) for the North East and North Cumbria.

This event aims to share findings from the North East and North Cumbria NHS Staff Tobacco Dependency Pilot, which was funded and supported by the Integrated Care Board (ICB) North East and North Cumbria.

It will include the results from an external evaluation of the pilot, completed by a team at Newcastle University, supported by the NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria.

It will also hear from Trusts who have embedded a support offer for NHS staff to reduce the harm from tobacco.

The event is jointly supported by the North East and North Cumbria Health and Care Partnership, the ICB for the North East and North Cumbria, the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria, and Newcastle University.

Background

Tobacco smoking is the leading cause of ill-health, disease and death in England, and is the single largest driver of health inequalities.  It is estimated that the total cost of staff smoking to the NHS is around £206 million per annum impacting on both employees/workforce and to the NHS as a  healthcare provider. This economic loss averages at around £175 per employee, or an annual cost of around £2,810 per smoker.

The NENC ICS NHS Staff Tobacco Dependency Offer (STDO) Pilot ran from December 2021-October 2023, as a collaboration between Local Authorities and NHS across the North East and North Cumbria. The aim of the STDO pilot was to embed and promote reduced-barrier support for NHS Foundation Trust Staff to quit smoking. The pilot had big reach, supporting over 1,800 NHS staff to make a quit attempt.  As part of the pilot, Taskforce commissioned researchers at Newcastle University (supported by the NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria) to complete a mixed-methods service-user evaluation of the pilot, and the evaluation findings are now available.

This hosted webinar has been organised to disseminate these findings and will include policy and practice recommendations. There are opportunities to consider how learning from the pilot can used to inform not only targeted interventions to support NHS staff to consider quitting in line with NICE NG209, but also how this learning may be applied to other targeted workplace health/public health interventions.

Speakers

Rachel McIlvenna – Smokefree NHS Strategic Manager, Fresh and Balance, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

Caitlin Thompson – Evaluation research lead, Newcastle University

Dr Ruth Sharrock – Respiratory Consultant and NENC Clinical Lead for Tobacco, Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust

Follow this link to register