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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Wednesday, 30 June 2004) . . Page.. 3079 ..

However, nurses, who are already working overtime and undertaking double shifts, have struggled to find the time to attend these courses. So I am doubtful that these same over-stretched staff will be able to find enough time to pass on that smoking cessation training to their own staff so the nurses can pass that on to the patients. This is why we need either dedicated health promotion people working in our hospitals or funding for the Cancer Council, or similar organisations, to provide those services in the hospital setting. We need a bedside patient service in this regard.

The government has recently begun offering inpatient smoking cessation courses to some patients at TCH that include post-discharge follow-up as part of a one-year trial, but it is the luck of the draw whether an inpatient who is a smoker will be given the opportunity to participate in that trial. They need to be in hospital on that particular day to pick up that particular program. This is why we are calling for a program that focuses on all those hospitalised for smoking-related illnesses. We need to focus on all smokers admitted to ACT public hospitals.

We do not need another trial. We had this position operating in 2001. We know how this program is working across other states, and literature has shown us that it is working across the world. We need an ongoing program. Six months to January 2005 gives the government long enough to put such a program in place. There is already abundant evidence that inpatient quit smoking programs work. There have been numerous studies of the effectiveness of inpatient quit smoking programs.

Literature reviews of these studies have drawn the conclusion that effective programs that offer counselling sessions of at least 20 minutes duration, involve at least five contacts with the smoker, have post-discharge follow-up and are delivered over a period at least three months duration, result in the most successful outcomes for the health system and for patients. We simply need to implement established best practice here in the ACT.

I hope that the Assembly and the government see the benefits of such programs operating here in the ACT and that the Assembly can support this motion. The failure to capitalise on opportunities to help people quit smoking would demonstrate a lack of commitment to the health of ACT residents and a lack of commitment to preventative health programs. We need to ensure that people who are admitted to hospital have the best outcomes and that they do not end up back in hospital because their health has not improved. I commend this motion to the Assembly.

MR QUINLAN (Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Business and Tourism, Minister for Sport, Racing and Gaming, and Acting Minister for Planning) (5.27): I think this is a fabulous idea. When patients are lying in bed, cannot go anywhere and are probably tied to a drip, it is a good time to give them a bit of counselling. There are probably not many people alive who do not know that smoking counselling is available. I think it is generally given free, but I would have to check on that. I think the medication you take, patches or whatever, costs money.

I do not think there is a direct link. I do not think that because a smoker is in hospital, it is necessarily the most effective way of saying that we want to approach all smokers. Why don’t we get them before they end up in hospital? Of course we do not want people bunging on and having their appendix out just to get into hospital to pick up some free

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