Establishment of a smoking cessation programme in primary and secondary care in Canterbury

Aims. Smokescreen for the 1990’s is a smoking cessationprogramme devised for use in primary care in Australia. Itis based on the ‘readiness to change’ model where smokersare categorised as being ‘ready’, ‘unsure’, or ‘not ready ‘ toquit smoking. Those in the ‘ready’ group are encouraged toset a quit date and offered nicotine replacement therapy.Those in the unsure group receive brief motivationalintervention, and those ‘not ready’ are given simple healthadvice. The aims of the study were to evaluate the processand outcome of establishing this program in primary andsecondary care in Christchurch.Methods. Process evaluation involved all staff participatingin the program. Patient outcomes including quit rates wereassessed by interview six months after enrolment.Results. Implementation was successful with 59 generalpractitioners, 49 practice nurses and 294 hospital staffreceiving education in the use of the programme. Ninehundred and seven patients (smokers) were enrolled in thestudy, 347 from primary care and 560 from ChristchurchHospital. The point prevalence abstinence rate at 6 monthswas 10.4% for the primary care sample and 17% for thesecondary care group, with an overall rate of 14.4%.Conclusions. The programme was successfullyimplemented across primary and