The Department of Health (DH) today (November 28) announced that the Pilot Public-Private Partnership Programme on Smoking Cessation (SCPPP) will be launched from December 4 in phases.
 
     The two-year pilot programme aims to complement current smoking cessation services to reach out to smokers through their family doctors to help them quit smoking. To serve up to 450 smokers per year, 30 private doctors enrolled in the Primary Care Directory (PCD) and the Electronic Health Record Sharing System who have completed the required training on smoking cessation can enrol in the SCPPP to provide smoking cessation services at the primary care level with a view to further lowering the smoking prevalence in Hong Kong.
 
     Enrolled doctors will actively invite their patients who are smokers to join the SCPPP when they seek help for other health problems. Smokers who are Hong Kong residents aged 18 or above and consent to the programme conditions will be eligible.
 
     In the first phase, eligible private doctors will be invited to enrol in the SCPPP, while successfully enrolled ones may start to invite patients to join the next phase to be launched in late December.
 
     "Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death. Tobacco control and smoking prevention have always been one of the key priority areas of the Government's public health policy. We will continue to adopt a multi-pronged approach including legislation, taxation, publicity, education, enforcement and smoking cessation services in tobacco control," a spokesman for the DH said.
 
     The public and interested doctors may visit the SCPPP page of the DH's PCD website for more information.

Ends/Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Issued at HKT 19:15

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