Freephone help points from Infopoint help UK hospital patients quit smoking this Stoptober

Free telephone help points installed in hospitals across the UK are connecting patients with stop smoking services and helping them go smokefree alongside the nationwide campaign Stoptober this October.

‘One You’, the nationwide campaign launched by Public Health England, emphasises that it’s never too late to stop smoking and many health benefits will happen faster than you think.

After 3-9 months of stopping smoking your lung function increases by 10% and after just 1 year you will have halved your risk of heart attack compared to a smoker’s. With the right support you are 4 times more likely to quit for good.[1]

A major new report released in 2018 by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) calls for a radical change in the way the NHS treats smoking by providing opt-out cessation services as a routine component of all hospital care.

The report, Hiding in plain sight: Treating tobacco dependency in the NHS^[2], says that giving smokers the help they need to quit smoking while in hospital will save lives, improve quality of life as well as increasing life expectancy, and help to reduce the current £1 billion per year cost to the NHS as a result of smoking by patients and staff.

As the UK’s leading provider of free telephone help points in hospitals, health centres and clinics, Infopoint provides free access to a whole host of helplines and many more services including NHS Smokefree.

Sarah Bennison, Director at Infopoint has said: ‘’NHS Smokefree studies show that people are four times more likely to quit smoking with help.

‘’The Infopoint help points, which are usually located in hospital entrances and exits, are providing more ways for patients to have immediate access to smoking support in hospitals, and we believe this could be a significant factor in helping hospitals and health centres combat smoking.”

In 2017/18 there were 489,300 hospital admissions that were attributable to smoking, as confirmed in the report, ‘Statistics on Smoking, England’- published in 2019.

[1] https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/for-your-body/quit-smoking/what-happens-when-you-quit-smoking/

^[2] https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/hiding-plain-sight-treating-tobacco-dependency-nhs