Introduction Blackpool tops for having the highest number of smokers and smoking related diseases in the whole of England. This QIP was carried out mainly in our Cardiology department with an aim to improve referrals of inpatient smokers to smoking free team thus paving way to have a team dedicated in the hospital. The annual cost to Blackpool’s health service associated with smoking related illnesses are estimated to exceed 7 million/year with an additional £744,000 spent on treatment due to passive smoking. Although Blackpool Council has a smoking cessation team in the community, the lack of a smoking cessation team solely in the hospital led us to embark on this project.

Methods and Findings Data collected for 60 patients with cardiovascular diseases over a period of one month showed 75% of patients admitted under cardiology were either ACS or IHD. Among them, 85% were confirmed smokers. Due to poor documentation 94% of the patients were not referred to the smoking cessation team, that led to lack of advice and education to aid smoking cessation and thus affecting future follow up for 90% of the patients, who agreed to a long-term quitting plan.

Outcome Post education to healthcare professionals working on the wards, we saw drastic increase in the referrals sent to the smoke free team thus increasing the number of patients seen from 42% to 57%. Given the success of increased referrals from the cardiology department over one month, it provided good evidence and opportunity for the trust to form its own smoking team in the hospital.