Ending smoking in England would free up some 75,000 GP appointments every single month, a charity has estimated. Cancer Research UK said that the Government must do more to prevent young people start smoking and to help current smokers kick the habit.
It said that smoking remains the biggest cause of cancer death and takes up a “considerable” amount of NHS resources – and it has calculated that one person is admitted to hospital every minute in England due to smoking. The charity has called on the Government to launch a consultation on raising the age of sale of tobacco and commit to providing more funding to help people quit.
If the Government does not have the cash, then it should be funded by the tobacco industry, the charity said. Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “In his forthcoming budget, the Chancellor has the chance to reduce the number of people suffering with and dying from smoking-related cancers, grow the economy and best use NHS resources.
“Jeremy Hunt must grasp this opportunity to be bold with tobacco control and establish a Smokefree Fund to pay for these measures – and if required, make the tobacco industry, not the taxpayer, pay for the harm it causes to our nation’s health, and our health service.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Smoking rates in England are at an all-time low – currently at 13% and down from around 20% in 2010 – and we’re committed to further reducing the harms from tobacco. Last year we provided £35 million to support the NHS Long Term Plan, which committed to offering NHS-funded tobacco treatment services to all smokers admitted to hospital.
"We have also provided £68 million to local authority stop smoking services through the public health grant – in 2021-22, around 100,000 people quit with the support of a stop smoking service. We remain firmly committed to our bold ambition to be smoke-free by 2030 and we will set out our next steps soon.”
Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest, said: “It isn’t the Government’s job to end smoking, over the past decade smoking rates have fallen significantly not because of taxpayer-funded anti-smoking campaigns or stop-smoking services, but because millions of smokers have switched to reduced-risk products such as e-cigarettes.
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“Government interventions, like plain packaging, have generally had very little impact. The danger is that by prioritising tobacco control, the Chancellor will discriminate against poorer smokers and drive many more consumers to the black market.”
The charity’s analysis is based on GP appointment data and a 2018 study which found that people who do not smoke see their GP 12% less than those who do.
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