Peter Marriott

Public Health Strategist – Tobacco control

Harrow Council and North West London Integrated Care Board

I have studied and specialised in delivering behaviour change at an individual level before progressing to a population level across my career. I have achieved this through working in smoking cessation starting out in Luton before stepping into a new role setting up and managing a specialist tobacco dependency service within a mental health trust in Hertfordshire as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. From here, I progressed into my current role as a public health strategist in Harrow and a programme manager overseeing the tobacco dependency pathways across northwest London.

My Improvement Leader Fellowship project is looking to understand if smoking cessation can be offered opportunistically in A&E settings while patients wait to be seen by a clinician. The project will look to opportunistically engage patients utilising the “teachable moment” associated with health outcomes and behaviour change. This is building on the COSTED project, which showed offering smoking cessation advice in A&E led to approximately 20% of patients quitting smoking. Furthermore, there are wider implications for understanding if it is possible to engage patients in other health promotion activities and why they wait to be seen by a clinician in A&E waiting areas.