published

Smoking in Pregnancy Project Report: June 2012
2.2.1 Benefits of the proposed approach
One of the intended key benefits of implementing this level of the tiered model was the
potential for maximising opportunities for referral along the various stages of pregnancy
and into the postnatal period by a number of health care professionals. This provided further
opportunities for referral and re-referral and was based upon the premise that utilising a
common health assessment and referral framework in regard to smoking during pregnancy
and postpartum by a number of health professionals, would provide a systems based
integrated service model for pregnant smokers.
The intention was to provide a seamless, more efficient and effective referral system from
the referrer to the stop smoking service provider. The development of an electronic referral
system had the potential to provide the local area with the opportunity to capture data that
would inform local planning for service provision in the future.
2.2.2 The electronic referral system
To support the pilot an electronic referral system was developed by AN Computing called
the National Pregnancy Referral System (NPRS). This system is a web based data management
tool that registered users can use to refer pregnant women, partners and other family
members to the local stop smoking service(s). The system was also designed to include a
feedback mechanism so that referrers could receive notification of the referral outcome.
From a user perspective, referring a client involved little more than completing the client’s
details and submitting the referral.
In addition, as the pilot site (see below) used the Quit Manager (QM) database, additional
development work was carried out to ensure that the two systems would recognise and
work together, so that referrals made via the NPRS system would be successfully received
directly into the QM database.
2.2.3 The pilots
In July 2011, a request for expressions of interest for pilot areas was disseminated to the
services that had responded to the NCSCT smoking in pregnancy survey (see 1.5.2), alongside
an eligibility criteria checklist (see annex B). Based upon responses to the checklist a pilot
site, Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust (PCT), was chosen.
In 2010, Central and Eastern Cheshire had a smoking rate of 20.1%. The local prevalence
of smoking in pregnancy is measured by the smoking at time of delivery data provided by
two Maternity Units within the PCT, Leighton Hospital Maternity Unit and Macclesfield
District Hospital. At the time of the pilot the reported smoking rate was 18% in Leighton
and 13% in Macclesfield.
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