A national standard in public hospitals for the management of smoking in patients admitted with smoking related acute illnesses is lacking. Where such patients have continued to smoke up until the time of admission, it can be assumed that "primary" prevention has failed.
Once admitted, there is a vastly under-utilised opportunity, by use of a structured and systematic approach, to intervene with a secondary prevention attempt. This takes advantage of the synergy of:
1. the smoker is a "captive audience" and may be receptive to considering lifestyle factors that have lead to the admission, and
2. best practice medication and counselling can be initiated prior to discharge. If proven to be cost-effective in our analysis, a systematic roll-out of this secondary prevention initiative would be advocated. ie translation of research into practice.
