Spending £4.5 million on a scheme to help smokers give up with a feeble result of one in three quitting their bad habit post all expenses paid might raise a question or two about the quality of such an endeavour. Whether it is without this or with that, smokers will only do their best if they really want to. The scheme spent £50 per month rewarding smokers. The campaigns entitled “Quit4U” and “GIVE It Up for Baby” have spent £4.5 million in the last five years but the investment is not working.
The Scotsman newspaper reported that £949,000 was spent on smoking cessation schemes by Tayside Health Authority in the last four years on top of the £790,000 spent in the region in the preceding year. The biggest focus goes on the most deprived areas but is there a better way of combatting the problem of nicotine addiction?
Other than good old fashioned willpower, Champix is the best option for most and 60% of our patients who take it are successful in quitting. This may be because they use their own money to pay for a private prescription so are more committed. Paying people to give up smoking is a totally ludicrous proposal and will just be used by people to scam the system as the Scottish madness reveals.