‘Put smokers on a quitting course if they are in hospital’

SMOKERS should automatically be enrolled on quit-smoking courses whenever they go to hospital, doctors’ leaders have said.

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) recommends a system of “optout” stop-smoking services for all smokers whatever their reason for being admitted to hospital.

In a report, the college said that failing to target smokers is “as negligent as not treating cancer”.

It also calls for the NHS to allow the use of e-cigarettes on its sites but a total ban on all patients and staff smoking tobacco anywhere on hospital grounds.

“Treating the more than one million smokers who are admitted to hospitals every year represents a unique opportunity for the NHS to improve patients’ lives, while also saving money,” said Professor John Britton, chairman of the RCP’S tobacco advisory group and lead editor of the report.

Duncan Selbie, the chief executive of Public Health England, said: “We fully support the Royal College in saying by far the majority of the NHS could be doing more to help smokers to quit.”