NHS hospitals must become completely smoke free, says NICE

NHS hospitals and clinics must do more to help patients to give up smoking, and this includes making their premises, including grounds, smoke free, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has said.

On Wednesday 27 November NICE published guidance on smoking cessation in secondary care: acute, maternity, and mental health services. The guidance includes a range of recommendations on effective actions that secondary care services can take, such as promoting smoking cessation in advance of planned admissions of patients, immediate provision of smoking cessation drugs and behavioural support after admission, and making all secondary care settings smoke free.1

Smoking related diseases put a huge burden on the NHS and are responsible for over 460 000 hospital admissions in England each year, NICE said.

John Britton, chairman of the NICE guidance development group and director of …