Ten million pound rise in money spent on NHS Stop Smoking Services

Expenditure on NHS Stop Smoking Services was almost £61 Million in 2007/08 – nearly £10 million more than in 2006/07 and almost £36 million more than in 2001/02, a report by The NHS Information Centre reveals today (21 August 2008).

The report; Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services: England, April 2007 to March 2008; is the first annual report about NHS Stop Smoking Services covering the period since the introduction of the smoking ban in England on July 1 2007.

It shows the cost per quitter increased from £160 in 2006/07 to £173 in 2007/08. However, this is lower than the 2001/02 figure of £206 per quitter.

A total of 680,289 people set a quit date through NHS Stop Smoking Services in 2007/08 – 13 per cent more than in 2006/07 (600,410). Of those in 2007/08, 52 per cent (350,800) had successfully quit by the four week follow-up, a 10 per cent increase compared to 2006/07 (319,720).

The report also shows that in 2007/08:

  • More women than men set a quit date (373,000 women compared to 307,289 men), but the success rate of quitting was slightly higher for men than women (53 per cent of men compared to 51 per cent of women).
  • Success rates generally increased with age, from 38 per cent of those aged below 18, to 60 per cent of those aged 60 and over.
  • Of the 18,977 pregnant women who set a quit date, 52 per cent (9,817) successfully quit.

Seventy per cent of those setting a quit date received Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) such as nicotine patches, gum or nasal spray. A further 14 per cent of those quitting received varenicline (Champix), which was the most successful pharmacotherapy and helped 63 per cent of those who received it successfully quit.

Chief Executive of The NHS Information Centre, Tim Straughan, said: “Our figures show the NHS is spending millions more pounds on NHS Stop Smoking Services, while thousands more smokers are successfully kicking the habit.”

The full report can be viewed at: www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/sss0708

ENDS

Notes to editors

  1. The NHS Information Centre is England's authoritative, independent source of health and social care information. It works with more than 300 health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researchers, regulators and policymakers in their work.
  2. The NHS Information Centre also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
  3. Regional information is available from this publication.
  4. This statistical report presents final results from the monitoring of the NHS Stop Smoking Services for the period April 2007 to March 2008. In 2007/08 new data items have been added to the collection. Information is now available for successful quitters by treatment option and ethnicity. Also, this is the first year that information on the use of varenicline (Champix) as a pharmacotherapy has been included. Some information has also been provided in this report in relation to smoking prevalence and attitudes to smoking to help put these results into context.
  5. Financial figures presented do not take into account inflation and are presented in cash terms only
  6. For media enquiries please call 0845 257 6990 or contact: