ASH release

15 November 2001

NHS smoking services in danger - careless government maydestroy successful public health initiative  

An editorial in the BMJ[1] reveals that the government is in imminent danger of destroying one of theshining successes of its own public health policies - the smoking cessationservices that have been established with funds granted under the 1998 tobaccoWhite Paper.  The authors argue that failure to clarify the funding forthese services is leading to precipitous staff attrition and uncertainty aboutwhether the new primary care trusts will allow the service to continue.

Commentingon the editorial, Clive Bates, Director of ASH said: 

"It should be a no-brainer, but Ministers arein danger of letting the whole thing crumble and collapse by ignoring thefunding crisis. 

“Helping people to quit smoking is just about the mosteffective use possible of NHS funds - effectively treating the fifty diseasescaused by smoking before they actually happen and tackling health. It would bea tragedy if these services were allowed to die by indifference orinflexibility."

“Compared to cholesterol lowering drugs known as statins,the services are saving about 12 times as many years of life for each poundspent, yet the NHS spend about 13 times more money on statins.” said Bates “theeconomic absurdity sticks out like a sore thumb.”

[1] Raw M.McNeill A. Watt J. Raw D. National smoking cessation services at risk: They areeffective and cost effective and must be made permanent BMJ 2001;323:1140-1141( 17 November ) http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/323/7322/1140