Smokers at NHS mental health unit given vape kits

ONE of the UK’S largest mental health hospitals is to hand out free e-cigarettes to those trying to quit smoking, in a deal with a vaping retailer.

The trust said it would help patients “transform” their health.

Last night, critics said the deal – believed to be the first of its kind – was “extraordinary” at a time when the safety of vaping is under increasing scrutiny.

The Ladywell Unit at Lewisham hospital is to provide patients with Hexa kits from vaping retailer VPZ.

Every patient who smokes will be offered a £20 kit until the first 100 have been used. The project will then be reviewed, but “early success” will mean it could continue.

Last week, Prof Dame Sally Davies, the departing Chief Medical Officer, said she backs a ban on flavoured ecigarettes, in line with plans announced by Donald Trump, the US president, after a spate of vaping-related deaths.

Prof Martin Mckee, professor of European health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “This is an extraordinary time for the NHS to engage in a project like this, in light of what we are seeing in the United States, and the risks of vaping.”

Smoking rates among adults with depression in the UK are about twice as high as among other adults, while people with schizophrenia are three times more likely to smoke than others.

Mary Yates, from South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This collaboration with VPZ has the potential to transform the lives of our patients, taking them off cigarettes, giving them more money and transforming their health.”

Public Health England has championed the role of e-cigarettes, which it claims are 95 per cent safer than smoking, and called for them to be made more widely available in hospitals.