Smoking 'most Crucial Health Challenge Facing The NHS'

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 03 Feb 2010 - 14:00 PDT

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NHS Confederation chair Bryan Stoten has said that smoking is the most crucial health challenge facing the NHS in response to the government's new tobacco control strategy. He also called for a cross party concensus on smoking policy.

The chair of the NHS Confederation today called for cross-party consensus on the future of policy towards smoking, which he described as the most crucial health challenge facing the health service.

Bryan Stoten, was responding to the release by Secretary of State for Health, Andy Burnham, of the Government's tobacco control strategy.

"Terrible ill health is directly caused by smoking and its cost to both wider society generally and the health service specifically is measured in lost days at work from sickness, the high cost of treatment and families who lose loved ones far too young and far too early to painful and distressing disease," he said.

"Smoking kills half of all lifelong smokers, wastes £2.5bn of NHS income and accounts for over half of all health inequality. This is the most crucial health challenge facing the NHS.

"The NHS can play its part in tackling the symptoms of smoking related disease as well as helping to educate the population at large about the dangers of the habit but it needs to be recognised that the rest of society also needs to play its part. It is right that politicians are engaging seriously with issues around the packaging, promotion and use of tobacco products, but this too is only a part of the solution

"What is needed is nothing less than a society-wide effort to educate, persuade and prompt people to either give up smoking, or better still, not to take the habit up in the first place.

"This needs action across the public and private sectors as well as real vision and leadership from leaders across the political spectrum, where we need to build genuine cross-party consensus - we are making progress in tackling this dangerous habit but there is plenty of work still to be done."

Source
NHS Confederation

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