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Stop smoking service celebrates first year success

Royal Papworth Paolo Custodio is in the front of the picture. He is wearing a grey, zip-up hoody and black hat with white writing that reads 'dope'. He has a grey and black beard and moustache. Behind him are members of the smoking cessation team. Royal Papworth
Paolo Custodio smoked for 41 years but stopped after enrolling with the service at Royal Papworth Hospital

Two-thirds of referred patients to a new smoking cessation service have quit smoking within the programme's first year.

Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge said 450 people were helped to quit within 28 days after enrolling in its treating tobacco dependency programme between August 2023 and July 2024.

According to the NHS, smoking kills about 80,000 people a year in the UK.

One patient who benefited from the service, said she "wouldn't have been able to do this on my own".

The service's support treatments include nicotine replacement products such as patches, nicotine lozenges, a nasal spray or inhalers.

Participants are then referred onwards to local stop smoking services, including community pharmacies or for behavioural support.

According to the NHS smoking is the single largest driver of health inequalities in England.

Paolo Custodio, 52, from Red Lodge near Newmarket, Suffolk, enrolled with the service after being admitted to Royal Papworth following a heart attack in July 2023.

He had been a smoker for 41 years and said the team "gave me the incentive I'd been missing before".

Royal Papworth Wendy Clark stands in a bright hallway in a hospital. She has blonde hair, she is wearing a white jumper and is holding a piece of paper that reads 'quit smoking'.Royal Papworth
Wendy Clark began smoking at 17 and said without the service she would not have been able to quit

The programme has been part of the drive to reduce health inequalities by the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Integrated Care System.

Wendy Clark, from Sudbury, Suffolk, had been smoking for 43 years before she had a heart attack in September.

She was warned she was at risk of another heart attack if she did not quit smoking.

Ms Clark was said: "Simply put, I wouldn't have been able to do this on my own."

Berin Krenek, a health inequalities nurse specialist at Royal Papworth Hospital, said: "The average success rate among smokers in England who try to quit is 25%.

"Therefore, to have two-thirds of participants on our programme successfully quitting for at least 28 days is hugely positive."

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