P.32 Addiction services

• 9,312 patients received Opioid Substitute Treatment (excluding prisons) at the end of the reporting period which includes 3,936 patients being treated by 339 GPs in the community.
• Opioid Substitute Treatment was dispensed by 624 pharmacies catering for 6,355 patients at the end of the reporting period.
• At the end of the reporting period there were 71 HSE clinics providing Opioid Substitute Treatment and an additional 10 clinics were provided in the prison service. 83 new patients commenced Opioid Substitute Treatment during the reporting period (7 in General Practice, 55 in HSE clinics and 21 in the prison clinics).

P.35 Tobacco control

As reported last month, the new HSE QUIT service went live with phone support for smokers on 1st October 2014. The objective of the new service is to support smokers wanting to quit by providing information, advice and direct access to an intensive cessation support programme (QUIT programme) via a range of media, including phone, online, social media, SMS and email. The initial results show a greatly more effective conversion rate from callers to QUIT programme signups than the previous QUITline service. During November, work continued on the online elements of the QUIT service, including development of the newly designed QUIT.ie website, SMS and Live Chat integration. These digital services are due to go live at the end of December 2014 when the QUIT service will be officially launched.

8,622 smokers received face-to-face intensive cessation support from a cessation counsellor to end of November 2014 compared to an expected activity target of 8,548 (+0.9%). 1,576 smokers reported/validated ‘quit at one’ month to end August 2014 versus an expected target of 1,845 (-14.6%). These figures are reported 3 months in arrears.

Performance against expected activity for the training of front line workers in brief intervention in smoking cessation to the end of November is 7.5% behind its planned target. The total number trained is 1,203 (2014) versus 1,301 (2013). In November 2014, 142 front line staff received training. There are ongoing challenges in getting staff released and engagement continues with the Acute Division and Hospital Groups where there have been low levels of staff released for training.