Effectiveness of smoking cessation services in Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore.

Dear Editor, Hospitalisation, especially for a tobacco-related illness, may render patients to be more receptive to smoking cessation efforts by increasing their perceived vulnerability. The hospital setting also increases the contact time that patients have with the healthcare professionals. In addition, hospitals are generally smoke-free to protect patients and staff from passive smoking. Patients who smoke have no choice but to abstain from smoking during the period of hospitalisation. Such an environment may therefore promote permanent tobacco abstinence.1 We would like to share our experience with smoking cessation in a hospital setting—comparing the quit rates of the inpatient smoking cessation programme and the outpatient smoking cessation clinic service available in Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and the signifi cant predictors affecting smoking cessation outcomes.