WellSouth is contracted by the Southern District Health Board to provide smoking cessation advice through GP clinics and medical centres.
However, the SDHB region has consistently missed national targets, and in November the Ministry of Health told the board that not withstanding the impact Covid-19 had had on provision of services, it expected better results.
That chiding prompted the SDHB to pass a resolution at its December meeting that management raise its concerns about not meeting contractual benchmarks with the PHO.
The board was expected to have 90% of enrolled patients who smoked and who were seen by a health practitioner in primary care offered advice and help to quit. The SDHB achieved 72.9%, a 3.3% decrease.
In the high-risk groups of Maori and Pacific people, 73.7% and 69.6% respectively were given brief advice on quitting smoking, a result which ranked the SDHB 18th out of 20 regions.
WellSouth chief executive Andrew Swanson-Dobbs said the organisation had responded to the poor statistics by offering practices more smoking cessation support.
About 25 practices had accepted the extra assistance, and in the past month more than 2000 calls had been made to WellSouth smoking cessation call centre staff.
“We all recognise that stopping smoking is the best thing people can do for their health, but it’s not easy and it’s understandable that people need extra help and encouragement,” Mr Swanson-Dobbs said.
"Our WellSouth call centre is supporting practices to help their patients by reaching out and offering referrals to the Southern Stop Smoking Service, and in particular, we aim to help support Maori, Pacific Island and high-needs populations.”
WellSouth medical director Stephen Graham said the Covid-19 lockdown and time pressures caused by doctors having to catch up on care not provided during that time were major reasons for the decline in provision of advice and help to stop smoking.
“General practice teams are busier than ever, as they continue to do almost all Covid-19 testing in Southern while catching up on missed appointments and treatments, immunisation programmes and more.
“WellSouth has provided this kind of temporary support in the past and we are pleased to be able to do it again.”
The government funds national tobacco control initiatives, and the SDHB has had its share of funding rolled over for this financial year.
The board was told last month that it would continue to support WellSouth and its public health team’s anti-smoking work.
A "Vape to Quit’’ pilot programme funded last year and which was delayed by Covid-19 is expected to go live soon.
