A joint report by two leading anti-tobacco groups says that the E-cigarette starter packs should be made available to smokers for free to encourage them to quit. They are saying that local authorities that currently do not provide e-cigarette starter packs as part of their cessation offer should reconsider their decision and start giving local smokers the best possible chance to quit by providing products like SMOK Tank free of cost.
UK aims to become smoke free by 2030 thus e-cigarettes like SMOK starter kit prove to be a low cost, popular and effective method of smoking cessation.
A data that has been released by the group shows the impact of swinging cuts to local authority budgets. It also shows how there is visible inequality between regions. The stop smoking services campaigns and expenses have been cut by nearly £8 million between 2017-18 and 2018-19, equating to 9.2 per cent.
But this is not similar in all regions. London’s budget remains same but the West Midlands saw a decline of 17.6 per cent. This decline and expected future cuts has risked the provision of services in many areas.
This is almost removal of the Public Health ring-fenced grant. Thus one can easily conclude that tobacco funding will severely decrease beyond 2020. The local authority budgets are already in extreme pressure and even if there is no further decline, there is definitely going to be an impact on public health budgets in the near future due to the decisions and steps already taken in past years.
