E-cigarettes On Prescription

NHS to offer e-cigarettes on prescription to urge more people to quit smoking.

16:31 20 August 2015

Following official review confirming that vaping is 95per cent safer than smoking tobacco, NHS has decided to offer e-cigarettes on prescription to help people quit smoking. Regulators are now looking at licensing vapes for medical use while the Public Health of England said that the move could save 7,600 lives per year.

 

Prof Ann McNeill of King’s College London, who led the review for PHE, said: “Smokers should try vaping and vapers should stop smoking entirely. E-cigarettes could be a game-changer in public health.”

 

Regulators hope that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to issue the license so GPS and stop-smoking services will be able to prescribe e-cigarettes by the year’s end.

 

Prof Kevin Fenton, PHE director of health, “The best thing a smoker can do is to quit forever, and there are a range of tools available to help.

 

“For some who find it difficult to quit using traditional methods, e-cigarettes may provide another tool for them to switch from smoking, which we know is significantly harmful, to a method that’s significantly less harmful.”

 

He added: “At the moment there are no licensed products that can be used for medicinal purposes.