Handing out free vapes in A&E helps people quit cigarettes

GIVING out free vapes in A&E helped to double the number of people who quit smoking, a trial has found.

Around a quarter of the 24million people that attend an NHS emergency department each year are smokers.

Researchers found that by giving smokers an e-cigarette starter pack, which included a vape and a referral to stop smoking services, they were almost twice as likely to successfully quit after six months compared with standard NHS care.

The trial involved almost 1,000 people who smoked cigarettes at six NHS hospitals in England and Scotland.

Half of the participants were given the vape starter packs and the other half were given information about local stop smoking services, which is the advice routinely provided. Almost one in four, or 23.9 per cent, of the smokers who left A&E with a free vape had quit after six months, compared with 12.9 per cent who quit without receiving a free vape.

The study, led by the Norwich Clinical Trials Unit at the University of East Anglia (UEA), also found that those who were given vapes but did not quit smoking were more likely to reduce the number of cigarettes they smoked.

Dr Ian Pope, from UEA’S Norwich Medical School, said there was a “valuable opportunity for people to be supported to quit smoking” when they attend A&E. He said it would “improve their chances of recovery from whatever has brought them to hospital, and also prevent future illness”.

“Swapping to e-cigarettes could save thousands of lives,” he added. “We believe that if this intervention was widely implemented it could result in more than 22,000 extra people quitting smoking each year.”

An NHS spokesman said: “Smoking costs the NHS and the taxpayer billions every year in avoidable health and social care costs. Encouraging more people to stop smoking tobacco will support them to have healthier lives.”

The study was published in the Emergency Medicine Journal.