City smokers not giving up; HEALTH: NHS short of target as people stay on the cigarettes.

Byline: Sandish Shoker

THE NHS is still seriously way off its targets for helping people in Coventry to quit smoking. At a board meeting, directors of NHS Coventry said that it was under-performing in reaching its smoking targets in the city.

Alison Walshe, director of planning and performance for NHS Coventry said the service missed its target of helping 2,650 people quit within four weeks for 2008/09, and saw only 1,435 reach the goal.

"There is still some concern that smoking targets in Coventry are not making the level of progress that had been anticipated," she said.

"We are not achieving targets in many areas but there needs to be a way of getting accurate information to the board about targets and how to manage them."

For 2009/10 a higher target of 2,828 was set with provisional figures standing at 391, which is way off the mark.

The primary care trust (PCT) is also underachieving in helping pregnant women in Coventry to quit smoking.

A spokeswoman for NHS Coventry, said: "Our stop smoking service has supported 749 people across the city to stop smoking this year so far. To achieve our targets for 2009/10 NHS Coventry has a number of initiatives in place to improve performance, such as stop smoking outreach clinics to be provided in the community.

"The PCT will also be running a marketing campaign from Christmas and into the New Year to raise awareness of choice about which services are available for people who want to stop smoking.

"Primary care services such as GPs and pharmacists have been trained to offer support to smokers wishing to stop smoking.

"From April next year, we will be introducing a radical new approach to expanding the supplier base for stop smoking services, these services will be delivered in the community as well as in health care facilities and by the private, voluntary and public sectors."

Helping smokers in Coventry to quit has been identi-fied as a key priority for action in NHS Coventry's health strategy for the next four years.

The PCT aims to reduce the number of smokers in the city from 29 per cent to 22 per cent by 2012, and hopes to prevent 2,775 premature deaths in the city each year.