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Waikato DHB Helping Smokers to Quit
Media Release
Date: 23 November 2009 – embargoed till 6am
Waikato DHB Helping Smokers to Quit
More than 600 Waikato DHB clinical staff are educated and upskilled on the ‘Better help for smokers to quit’ health target.
Waikato offered 39 per cent of its hospitalised smokers intervention, well short of the 80 per cent required by the Ministry of Health’s health targets, but enough to make it second best DHB in the country.
The health target is 80 per cent by July 2010.
That means Waikato still has a long way to go, said Smokefree Hospitals clinical nurse coordinator Kate Dallas.
“We worked closely with our data analysis team using Ministry of Health guidelines to ensure what we are coding is accurate,” she said.
“I feel as though we have put in a lot of the hard groundwork at this point and should start to see improvement over the coming months.”
Work undertaken includes baseline audits in all Health Waikato hospital wards (including the organisation’s rural hospitals in Thames, Tokoroa, Te Kuiti and Taumarunui) to find out how each area is currently performing and where the gaps are in staff documenting a patient’s smoking status, and offering them advice, treatment and cessation support to quit.
“We also hired an extra registered nurse dedicated specifically to assist our staff reach the health target, carried out staff training and started an awareness campaign for staff around the importance of the health target,” said Ms Dallas.
She said Waikato would be using the Ministry of Health’s ‘Ask about the elephant’ campaign which includes an online learning tool for staff to promotes awareness of the health target and plays on the catch phrase, ‘There’s an elephant in the room – smoking is too big to ignore’.
“We are having a staff awareness drive beginning Monday 30 November, where staff can come to find out about the health target, and by filling in a questionnaire give their suggestions as to how they can help Waikato achieve the target and help us gauge their current knowledge of it,” said Ms Dallas.
The health
target
Better help for smokers to quit
The aim is that
80 per cent of hospitalised smokers get advice and help to
quit by July 2010; 90 per cent by July 2011; and 95 per cent
by July 2012.
Smoking kills about 5000 people in New
Zealand every year. Most smokers want to quit, and there are
simple methods to help them that can be provided in
hospitals.
You’re invited
Media are invited for
photo and interview opportunities at the Waikato Hospital
staff awareness drive of the ‘Better help for smokers to
quit’ health target on 30 November. Please register your
interest (at the contact details below before the
day).
Photograph attached
Waikato DHB chief executive
Craig Climo and Population Health group manager Barbara
Garbutt with the ‘Ask about the elephant campaign’
display.
High resolution version available upon
request.
ENDS
Waikato District Health Board
Healthy People. Excellent Care
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
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