The NHS is spending more money helping people stop smoking - but fewer are quitting, say official figures.Which I’m guessing can’t be covered just by inflation?
The cost per quitter was £219 in 2008/09 compared with £173 in 2007/08 and £160 in 2006/07.
Well, since one of the main methods for giving up is left out of these figures, I’m guessing that’s ‘No’:
The proportion of people successfully quitting last year went down four per cent. But spending went up 21 per cent last year to £74m - not including the cost of nicotine replacement therapy.Why not include it?
5 comments:
Yet the solution to people smoking costs pennies and is a regular vitamin which helps with the cravings
They dont tell you that of course because then their quango means nothing
They leave out the cost of the patches because the patches cost more than tobacco.
I've looked at them during my occasional thoughts of 'maybe I shouldn't smoke so much' but then it's cheaper just to buy the baccy...
...plus, they're still nicotine. You're still hooked, but without the actual smoking and on a more expensive product.
Since nicotine comes from tobacco, the profits go to the same place anyway.
I'd have thought that's a blindingly obvious example of diminishing returns. You can wean off an occasional or social smoker with a small bribe; a non-committed smoker with a larger bribe; but to get hard-core smokers like me to stop you'd have to offer about £100 per day of abstinence.
... or convince you of the dangers, Mark. Not a likely prospect, granted.
"Yet the solution to people smoking costs pennies and is a regular vitamin which helps with the cravings.."
Ahh, but nothing costs just pennies when the 'Simple Shopper' gets involved.
"You're still hooked, but without the actual smoking and on a more expensive product."
So, it's methadone for smokers? ;)
"I'd have thought that's a blindingly obvious example of diminishing returns."
Very little seems to be blindingly obvious to the NHS though. Or any other large govt department...
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