Smoking Cessation Services in England Lose Business - Customers Declined by 45% Since 2011-2012

E-cigarettes are now the most common method used to quit smoking, having overtaken NRT, medication and behavioural support by 2013 in England. This graphic reflects the change in the use of stop smoking services since e-cigarettes in light of this shift in how people use nicotine. The UK has a network of specialist stop smoking services and help with quitting is also provided through a wide range of NHS services. They have seen a rapid drop in customers since 2011-12. In part this might be due to reduced resources, but is also likely to be linked to the fact that people now have additional ways to quit.

Given the interest in e-cigarettes, staff in stop smoking services have had to respond to patient requests as to whether using e-cigarettes is a good way to quit smoking. After some reluctance to embrace e-cigarettes, some stop smoking services now incorporate them into what they offer clients. The first to do this was the smoking cessation programme run by Louise Ross, then service manager for Leicester City (UK) stop smoking service, which started using e-cigarettes in their programme from 2014. The service achieved success with other health professionals, including persuading midwives to convince pregnant women that vaping is safer than smoking, and convincing GPs to record vapers as ex-smokers. The Time to Switch poster went viral round the world within a couple of hours of appearing on billboards in Leicester. The call to action on the poster was that all smokers should consider switching to vaping, and that vapers should consider quitting smoking altogether.

See also p. 53 of the report: No Fire, No Smoke: The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction 2018 — Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (gsthr.org)