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** 06 August 2020
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** UK
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** Smoking will be banned in new outdoor seating areas at Manchester pubs, bars and restaurants (#1)
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** "Repetitive" local gov tendering risks undermining NHS COVID-19 response (#2)
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** Matt Hancock’s performance to be given a "CQC-style" rating (#3)
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** International
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** New Zealand: Bill restricting vaping sales and use in public passes final reading (#4)
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** Canada: Researchers from Canada and Nottingham lead new vaping study with teenage co-researchers (#5)
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** UK
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Smoking will be banned at all temporary outdoor seating areas brought in by Manchester businesses emerging from the coronavirus lockdown.

Pavement licences granted to bars and restaurants for outdoor drinking and dining have to include both smoking and non-smoking areas under new legislation. But the city council will go one step further by making all outdoor areas smokefree so as to not ‘sleepwalk from one health crisis to another'.

Manchester has one of the worst rates of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease registrations in the UK, while mortality rates from both illnesses amongst men under 75 are also high. Between 2017 and 2019 the number of people aged 18 and over who smoked fell from 22% to 18% - but this is still higher than the national average of 13.9%. With 6,000 smoking-related hospital admissions per year, the council says there is still much more that can be done to reduce the number of smokers in the city.

Councillor Rabnawaz Akbar, executive member for neighbourhoods, said: “Smoking is not only terrible for our health but is also an unpleasant thing for bystanders to endure. I am sure that after months inside the last thing people want is a face full of smoke when trying to enjoy a meal or drink [...] The introduction of outside seating for the hospitality sector has been a positive step over the past few weeks. We are seeing the public enjoy a degree of normality, and we are also seeing our businesses pick up following the devastating impact of the lockdown. However, we have not endured one health crisis to sleepwalk into another."
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Source: Manchester Evening News, 6 August 2020

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** See also: ASH - Briefing: Pavement licences and smoking ([link removed])
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** NHS leaders have called for the retendering of community and public health services to be "paused" for 21 months, amid concerns about winter capacity within community health. In a report exclusively shared with the Health Service Journal, the NHS Confederation has said retendering these services “risks damaging [the] morale” of frontline staff as it creates an “unnecessarily uncertain future” for them.

The paper, written by the Community Network which is hosted by NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, said there have been “worrying reports of local authorities looking to retender contracts for NHS community health and public health services” to help cover a £7.6bn income shortfall for 2020-21. It said “repetitive, disruptive” retendering would “destabilise” working relationships between the NHS and local authority commissioners. It suggested retendering be paused until the end of 2021-22.

NHS Confederation made the ask alongside warnings that the “effectiveness of the NHS’s recovery from covid-19 is dependent on the community sector receiving additional resources [funding and workforce]”. Although it also welcomed the government announcement on 17 July that around £500m of an additional £3bn NHS funding pot will be used to fund “discharge to assess” models for the remainder of 2020-21, it said the government funding “will need to go further” as community services must “increase its bed base” ahead of winter and also invest more in other community pathways such as home visits.

Andrew Ridley, chair of the Community Network and chief executive of Central London Community Healthcare Trust said: “Without additional funding, including for social care and public health, and the workforce to deliver its services, there is the real risk that discharge arrangements will be compromised and hospitals could become overwhelmed. We need realism about what these services will be able to deliver safely in the next stage of the pandemic.”

Source: Health Service Journal, 4 August 2020
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** The parliamentary committee led by Jeremy Hunt will subject health ministers to a “CQC style ratings system”, as part of a new way of scrutinising the Department of Health and Social Care. The Health and Social Care Select Committee has set out plans for a new ratings system to “offer independent and objective evaluation of ministerial pledges”.

It says an independent panel will hear witnesses and scrutinise evidence to determine whether the government and its agencies’ performance has been outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate, in relation to different service areas. The initial pilot of the new system will examine maternity services. The independent panel will be chaired by Professor Dame Jane Dacre, professor of medical education at University College London and a former President of the Royal College of Physicians. She will be joined by two permanent panel members, who are yet to be appointed, and up to six experts co-opted for each inquiry.

Mr Hunt, committee chair and former health secretary, said: “We are piloting a new CQC-style ratings system to provide an expert independent assessment of the government’s record on key pledges. This will  mean the government  is  held to  account by an evaluation process similar to that used across the NHS and social care system which gives not  just an absolute score but key pointers as to how to improve that score next time round. We hope it will focus attention on areas such as cancer, mental health and patient safety where a number of vital commitments have been made.”
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** Source: Health Service Journal, 5 August 2020
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** International
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** The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Bill has passed in New Zealand bringing with it a range of regulations that will be phased in over the next two years.

From November 2020, prohibitions will be in place on vaping in the workplace, advertising and sponsorships related to vaping products, and the sale of vaping products to those under 18 years old.

Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa said the bill strikes the right balance "between helping smokers quit by offering regulated vaping as an alternative, while discouraging children and young people from taking it up." She added that "We know vaping is not without risks but it is 95% less harmful than cigarette smoking. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in this country and contributes to the death of an average 5000 New Zealanders every year." The government also recognised that many smokers needed support and advice to move to less harmful alternatives. "So the bill allows for the provision of information and advice for those wishing to switch from smoking to vaping," Salesa said.

The bill also limits generic retailers such as convenience stores, service stations and supermarkets to selling only tobacco, mint and menthol flavoured vaping products, whilst specialist vape retailers will be able to sell any flavours from their shops and websites.

Source: Radio New Zealand, 6 August 2020
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** Researchers from Western University, Canada and the University of Nottingham, UK, are leading a new study into teenage vaping in Canada, where high schoolers will be appointed as co-researchers to the project. The study will take a revolutionary ‘by-youth-for-youth’ approach to understanding teenagers’ motivations for, and experiences with vaping, by involving teens in the project, which will culminate in developing the concept for a youth-informed education campaign.

The researchers hope to understand how factors such as gender, race, socio-economic circumstances and place – as well as physical distancing as a result of COVID-19 – shape teenagers’ engagement with vaping. To encourage candid discussions about vaping, researchers will hold online focus groups where teenagers can use avatars and pseudonym screen names to participate, as well as in-person friendship group interviews when face-to-face contact resumes. Using this evidence, the researchers will work with teen collaborators to develop a creative communications campaign, such as a short film or comic strip, to deliver the study’s findings to teenagers.

Dr Coen, Assistant Professor in the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham, said: “There is currently little to no research that engages youth perspectives; and we have very limited knowledge about young people’s first hand experiences with vaping – how they come to vape, why they vape, and the social contexts surrounding their vaping. The history of failed tobacco cessation and substance use campaigns targeted at teenagers has taught us that effective health promotion begins with evidence that centres young people’s experiences in meaningful ways.”

Source: Scienmag, 5 August 2020
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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.

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