Georgina Yeo, Tobacco Dependency Programme Manager, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust

Shifting Trust-wide attitudes towards people who are affected by tobacco dependency and seeing them through a lens of compassion and support is a rewarding part of Georgina Yeo’s role.

Tobacco dependency still affects a high proportion of the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust’s population and is routed in health inequalities. The NHS aims to support people to stop smoking at a teachable moment after a hospital admission and capitalise on a smoke free stay, turning it into a chance to quit for good.

Georgina manages the Tobacco Dependency Programme, with a team of 10 health improvement advisors supporting pregnant smokers and inpatients who smoke, to become smoke free. There are also pilots to support cardiovascular and respiratory outpatients to become smoke free, and Georgina is in the process of extending this offer to cancer outpatients. Her drive to support people to become smoke free has also led her to embed a smoke free culture across four Trust sites and more than 20,000 staff.

Georgina’s work is routed in the shift from sickness to prevention, with the aim of creating a smoke free generation and protecting citizens from lifelong harms associated with tobacco smoking. From creating smoke free homes for babies born in the Trust’s hospitals, right through to helping lifelong smokers achieve a quit in their 70s, 80s or even 90s, Georgina sees the impact and benefits of going smoke free across the whole spectrum of patients the Trust cares for.

“Many of our patients are lifelong smokers, who started in childhood and with the right support in hospital and our seamless links into community services have finally quit for good and become smoke free. Our pregnant smokers have the opportunity to have a smoke free birth and there’s support for family members to create smoke free homes, making a generational change to families that have been affected by smoking tobacco and the associated health consequences.

“To me, the core principles of the NHS of access to health care for all, extends towards closing the gaps caused by health inequalities, right across our youngest newborn patients to our oldest. It is never too late to stop.”