MTP7.16 Advice regarding smoking cessation in surgical patients: A tertiary care centre experience

Aim To assess the awareness of surgical staff about advice regarding smoking cessation for patients admitted on the surgical floor in a tertiary care NHS Trust. Methods As per Trust policy, the smoking cessation advice services to all acute surgical admissions was reviewed. After discussion with smoking cessation service Lead, a questionnaire was designed for data collection. Results The questionnaire was completed by 34 surgical doctors of all grades. Majority of the doctors, (94 %) inquired about smoking habits of the patients. The most common question was asked about the number of cigarettes/ day (79.4 %). When asked about “smoking cessation”, 47 % of team members didn’t know about advice, 29 % advised smoking cessation, and 24 % advised on impact of smoking on wound healing postoperatively. Most importantly, 73.3% didn’t ask patients if they wanted to quit smoking. Regarding the Trust smoking cessation services, only 50 % knew about the policy, and 44% didn’t know about NHS smoking cessation services. None of the surgical doctors knew about the referral pathway for patients seeking smoking cessation. Conclusions Majority of surgical staff doesn’t ask patient about smoking cessation. The referral pathway, for smoking cessation in the Trust is not being efficiently used and surgeons are unaware of the importance of referral pathway for smoking cessation advice.