This Morning's health expert Phillipa Kaye gave her blessing to a new anti-smoking pilot being rolled out by Cheshire council which would see smokers receive hundreds of pounds to try and quit.
Alison and Dermot welcomed health expert Phillipa Kaye to today's show to chat about monkeypox and the benefits of a proper sleep schedule. Later in the show, the conversation turned to smoking, notably with the Cheshire council offering grants in an attempt to help people quit.
The scheme would see people paid £200, with this doubled to £400 for pregnant women. Dr Kaye said the pilot would be an incredible incentive to try and get long time smokers to kick the habit.
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She said: "Anything which helps people stop smoking is actually pretty cost-effective. So you might say '£200 or £400 if you're pregnant how can that be cost-effective'. If you smoke you are more likely to have lung disease, heart disease, cancer... that costs the NHS far more.
"So on a cost-effective scale, anything that can help for better now, we do have lots of things. This isn't available everywhere and some places are considering it but there are smoking sensation clinics available. There are treatments available, there are nicotine replacements and various support groups available so if you're considering quitting it's the best thing you can do for your health."
A report by Cheshire East Council stated: “Robust evidence demonstrates that financial incentive schemes are an effective method of helping people to quit.
“In Cheshire East, approximately 10.5 per cent of the general population and 10.8 per cent of pregnant residents (at the time of birth) smoke." The council added: “These rates are similar to or worse than the national average and are no longer declining."
“Smoking is the most important modifiable risk factor in pregnancy and can lead to miscarriage, premature and stillbirth, and cot death.” In 2020 in England, the NHS says there were 506,100 hospital admissions attributable to smoking.
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