July 04, 2016
Quit smoking services culled
There's a shake up in quit smoking services.
Associate Health Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga says the Ministry of Health will put more of the $12m it spends each year on cessation into frontline services, sharply cutting down on the amount it spends on advocacy.
In response to an external review, services will be realigned to focus on at-risk Maori and Pacific communities and pregnant women.
More than one in three Maori and 22.4 per cent of Pacific people smoke daily.
Tobacco control researcher Marewa Glover says there could be a period of uncertainty as people get use to the new system, which includes new partnerships between district health boards, Maori and Pacific providers, primary care practitioners and Whanau Ora collectives.
"Many of the cessation services that have had contracts for in some cases over a decade have lost those contracts. We have these new alliances in each region that are supposed to work together. People come into a clinic and then they are supposed to be referred out for smoking cessation," she says.
Dr Glover says the new focus on Maori is reflected in the fact Maori public health organisation Hapai Te Hauora is the only body that will be funded to do advocacy and lobbying.
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