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By ADAM BOWIE
bowie.adam@dailygleaner.com

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A special designation will help the Horizon Health Network approach more smokers about giving up their habit and support them in their effort to butt out for good.

The regional health authority has been named a Centre of Excellence in Clinical Smoking Cessation - one of only three designated centres in Canada.

The other two sites are located at the Vancouver Coastal Hospital and, where the program was initially developed, at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.

Dr. Ann Collins, lead medical champion for the Fredericton zone's tobacco-cessation program, said about 2,000 New Brunswickers have already received assistance with quitting through the program but that number is expected to jump to about 20,000 patients per year under the new designation.

"(This) model has been in place in this region, certainly at the (Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital) for over a year," she said.

"What this (designation) will allow is a pooling of the expertise not only in the hospital setting, but perhaps in other acute care settings, outpatient settings. And it allows a coming-together of international expertise and research in advancing the success of smoking cessation."

Collins said smokers who visit local health-care facilities will be asked about their habit as part of the triage or admissions processes.

"Clearly, prevention is the gold standard, but this program is designed to assist those patients who visit our hospitals as smokers," she said.

"The admission to hospital is a great opportunity to intervene with those individuals and to ask them about their smoking history, their desire to quit smoking, and then if that's something they wish to do, we can provide them with support."

Collins said those support services range from counselling services to pharmacotherapy to various other treatment options.

"Whether it's the nicotine patch or gum, or other medications, we want to let the patient know there are options," she said. "And they're kind of a captive audience at that time."

Collins said the program also includes processes to ensure that follow-up appointments occur.

"As we in the health-care system know, there's a high rate of relapse in smoking cessation. So follow-up is critical, and that's a key part of this model," she said.

The new designation and related partnerships are due in part to $750,000 in funding from pharmaceutical company Pfizer Canada and $250,000 from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario.

Fonda Kazi, vice-president of community and primary health-care services for the Horizon Health Network, said those partnerships bring more benefits to the region than money.

"With Pfizer, it allows us better access to some of the medications we might be able to use," she said.

"With the heart foundation, and with the (University of Ottawa Heart Institute), it allows us to have better access to experts who can help us deliver our plan, to deliver what we want to do, and to have the materials that we'll need to be able to do it."

Studies suggest that tobacco contributes to the death of more than 45,000 Canadians per year.