Hitting the Quit Target

Reducing the number of people who smoke is probably the single most effective thing that could be done to improve health and cut the burden on the NHS.  Giving up smoking isn’t easy, however. It isn’t a “life-style choice” as so many like to think, but a serious, albeit legal, addiction.  That quitting isn’t easy is all too evident in the many ads on TV offering all kinds of products, as well as in the enduring huddles of smokers outside door-ways, puffing on their cigarettes no matter what the weather.

The Welsh Government aims to reduce the proportion of people who smoke to just 16% by 2020.  While there has been some success cutting the quit rate amongst the better-off in society, cutting smoking amongst lower income groups is proving much tougher.  People who are unemployed are three times more likely to smoke as people in professional and managerial groups.  As if that is not enough, people in low income groups are less likely to succeed in giving up than people from higher groups, and more likely to relapse if they do quit for a time.

What can be done?

Various studies show that one of the most effective methods of helping people to quit is behavioural therapy and some form of pharmaco-therapy – either nicotine replacement or medication.  Low-income smokers who attend these groups have just as good a success rate as higher income groups.  But here is the double whammy – people from low income groups tend not to like to go to this sort of thing as well as facing practical difficulties getting to groups on a regular basis.

But there are alternative treatments available – even if they are slightly less effective than Stop Smoking Groups (and the jury is out on this one), they are still a great deal more likely to be successful than nothing at all or ‘over-the-counter’ treatments.

With a massive challenge of reducing smoking to a historic low, the Welsh Government and Local Health Boards should start offering a much wider range of treatment options for smokers who want to quit. Smokers should get the help that suits them, whether in the home or at a class, whether it is behavioural support or medication.  It should be offered immediately, when the smoker is motivated, and be available through health professionals from GPs to pharmacists with a clear and simple pathway for patients to follow.

At the moment, smokers who want help to quit are put through a series of hoops before they can get any support, so it needs to be fast, easy and effective.

Times are tough in the NHS, but they will only get tougher unless every help is offered to cut the terrible burden that smoking imposes on society – and especially on its least well off.

Victoria Winckler is Director of the Bevan Foundation. A copy of the Bevan Foundation’s report on smoking and inequality is on the publications page.