Smokefree pledge

Northamptonshire ICB is pleased to have signed up to the NHS Smokefree Pledge. The Pledge is a visible way for NHS organisations to show their commitment to helping smokers to quit and to providing smokefree environments which support quitting. In signing the NHS Smokefree Pledge, organisations commit to reduce the harm caused by tobacco for both patients and staff.

In England alone, almost 75,000 people die from smoking related diseases each year. Smoking accounts for over one-third of all deaths from respiratory disease, one quarter of all deaths from cancer and over one tenth of all deaths caused by circulatory diseases. On average, smoking reduces life expectancy by 10 years. If hospitalised, people who smoke are more likely to require longer stays and need intensive care after surgery.

Smoking costs Northamptonshire ICB £24.1M a year, causing 7,508 hospital admissions and 907 premature deaths.

Thus, smoking creates an inevitable cost to society and to the NHS. Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) estimates that smoking costs the NHS approximately £2.4 billion each year through smoking-related hospital admissions and the cost of treating smoking related illness via primary care services.

In support of a smokefree future, Northamptonshire ICB commits from to:

• Treat tobacco dependency among patients and staff who smoke in line with commitments in the NHS Long Term Plan and Tobacco Control Plan for England
• Ensure that smokers within the NHS have access to the medication they need to quit in line with NICE guidance on smoking in secondary care.
• Create environments that support quitting through implementing smokefree policies as recommended by NICE.
• Deliver consistent messages about harms from smoking and the opportunities and support available to quit in line with NICE guidance.
• Actively work with local authorities and other stakeholders to reduce smoking prevalence and health inequalities.
• Protect tobacco control work from the commercial and vested interests of the tobacco industry.
• Support Government action at national level
• Publicise this commitment to reducing smoking in our communities and join the Smokefree Action Coalition (SFAC), the alliance of organisations working to reduce the harm caused by tobacco.

The full Pledge document and commitments can be viewed here.