How we’re helping people kick the habit on No Smoking Day

We’re encouraging smokers in Swindon to join the thousands of people in our local area who have already kicked the habit, this No Smoking Day 2023 (Wednesday 9 March).

The Trust is proud to have played its part in helping smokers to give quitting a go, by offering smoking cessation support, public health talks and Nicotine Replacement Therapy.

To date, thirty percent of smokers in Swindon having successfully given up smoking and 1,214 NRT patches have been offered to inpatients spending time in Great Western Hospital in the last year.

Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of premature death, and our partners in Public Health offer smoking cessation clinics right across the region.

Steph Taylor, Cardiac Rehabilitation Sister and the Trust’s Stop Smoking lead, said: “We see thousands of patients a year who are at higher risk because they smoke. Many of them come to us already unwell and needing hospital care, but their conditions are sometimes worsened by smoking.

“Our staff do all they can do to prevent this, by offering prescriptions for Nicotine Replacement Therapy and signposting our patients to other services. We’ve also worked hard to eradicate smoking across our hospital grounds, and have been recognised as a smokefree site since 2018.

“It is encouraging to see that so many have already kicked the habit, but it’s important that more people follow in their footsteps. We’ll be there for all our patients that want help in stopping smoking.

If you would like to speak with someone about quitting smoking, please visit https://www.nhs.uk/services/service-directory/swindon-stop-smoking-service/N10802786.