E cigarettes on prescription

No way the NHS is constantly being abused by people who have no willpower. We need to stop the constant nannying and make people take responsibility for their actions . I stopped smoking 40 years ago without the aid of an e cigarette

So, everyone else should?
All the people on here who like a tipple shouldn't drink because I don't?
Strange logic, particularly if it's applied to something that could save our struggling nhs money in the longer term.

katy1950

No way the NHS is constantly being abused by people who have no willpower. We need to stop the constant nannying and make people take responsibility for their actions . I stopped smoking 40 years ago without the aid of an e cigarette

It's great that you stopped without any kind of aid, but for many people, it's not a case of having 'no willpower.' If that were the case, everyone would be able to stop.
Would you also say that obese people are abusing the NHS by having bariatric surgery because they have 'no willpower?'
Or alcoholics abusing the NHS by having treatment owing to their 'lack of willpower?'
How about people becoming ill because of poor dietary choices?
I think this is a slippery slope. But again, congratulations on stopping smoking.

Nicotine is probably the most addictive substance on the planet and the NHS have always done everything possible to help people to quit. Unless you’ve been a smoker you have no idea how hard it is to break the habit.

BlueBelle a sort of pre cursor to the vape, an inhalator; along with gums, patches and a mouth spray.

If e-cigarettes become available on prescription as a way to get smokers to stop then once legislation passed all cigarettes should be withdrawn from sale. Otherwise what's the point. If the powers that be think the e-cigs are the way to go to get smokers to stop tobacco cigs should not be available. Wonder how much taxation revenue would be lost!

Should some things be prescribed conditionally?
Say a two year limit to support the change to a more healthy lifestyle and then funding withdrawn.

E cigarettes, but also blood pressure and type two diabetes that could be addressed by weight loss. The medication that makes alcohol unpleasant.

I have a relative who is obese and does nothing but sit in a chair all day. High blood pressure, diabetes, operations linked to both. But as he says, no need for him to do anything, the NHS will take care of any problem. Im pretty certain he’d act differently if he had to pay!

The trouble is once we start making moral judgements where do we stop.

I really am worried about e-cigarettes though.

Maybe make the prescription e-cigs one style only. I look at (and smell) the wide variety of perfumed vapes available and wonder if they don’t just encourage the continuation of use.
If the only choice is one, it might discourage use.
Will they be the same price as other prescriptions? Will it be 1 packet per prescription or will it be like the new idea for HRT?
I like your idea Peasblossom. For normal medication, if it doesn’t work, it’s withdrawn.

Vaping didn’t help me at all. Neither did patches, gum, lozenges etc. I even went on a programme organised by Birmingham University who believed that using two methods rather than one would be much more effective, so I was given a supply of patches and a mouth spray and attended weekly sessions where my carbon monoxide was measured and I was given an encouraging chat. I’d leave the session, race home and light up!
Eventually I went to my GP and went on a course of Champix.
That worked and I’ve never looked back. Wish I’d known about it years before. I’d have bought Champix myself but it’s only available on prescription.
But vaping? No, not for me.

I could not have packed up smoking without vaping

My grandson started vaping and I have to say it looks absolutely ridiculous, we took the pee out of him so much he stopped.
Like others on here I stopped smoking in the days before patches etc. There is no gain without pain. Looking at the price of cigarettes now I really couldn't afford it.

Isn’t champix the stuff that makes you really sick if you light up? The only thing that stopped me was having my first grandchild. I didn’t want him exposed to nicotine on my breath or clothes. I used to do a stop smoking hypnotism tape, wake up and have a cigarette. Halfway through a cigarette I’d be thinking about the next one. The addiction was terrifying. Even the people helping you to stop, if they’ve never smoked themselves, don’t understand how difficult it is to do so.

Champix did nothing for me, at all.
It was supposed to gradually reduce the craving, until I would one day realise I hadn't smoked.
Fat chance!

A very emotive topic - we provide drug addicts with methodone so why not nicotine addicts with something that will lessen their addiction? But will it really? I have yet to see the serious evidence that vaping encourages people to stop - yes it may be less dangerous but the addiction remains. So there's no real comparison.

And there's another point to consider which is how exactly does this save the NHS money in the long run? Oh I know - it's because despite all the awareness raising about smoking, some people ignore it for years and then turn up expecting lung re-sections etc. when the going gets tough - but is that really fair when the NHS refuses breast reductions or gastric band operations to people who don't show their commitment by reducing their weight to a target?

And as a final gripe - I recall when we moved from one London borough to another being told by a 25 year old incontinence nurse that she wouldn't prescribe my 88 year old doubly-incontinent mother disposable pull-ups because it was too expensive for the NHS and instead offered her something entirely unsuitable for a patient with dementia. Needless to say I escalated this situation and ensured that my mother did get the correct protection but frankly the idea that there are elderly people in our society who are living in undignified and health damaging conditions by penny pinching on incontinence products at the same time as smokers who choose to smoke - nobody forces this upon them - are given vaping treatment at the taxpayers' expense is just immoral and ludicrous.

It isn’t all about being able to afford it it is about encouraging someone to switch from cigarettes to vaping and being monitored and encouraged to cut down and eventually stop vaping.

I don’t think we should be judging who should be helped there are lots of reasons why people do things a lot are related to mental health.

An earlier poster mentioned people doing high risk activities and the huge expense if air ambulances or search and rescue teams are called out perhaps people doing these high risk sports etc should have insurance? If you are going do something very high risk chances are you are going to have an accident. Our health service has mostly been reactive perhaps if it is was more preventative there wouldn’t be such a strain on its services.

03Peasblossom

Should some things be prescribed conditionally?
Say a two year limit to support the change to a more healthy lifestyle and then funding withdrawn.

E cigarettes, but also blood pressure and type two diabetes that could be addressed by weight loss. The medication that makes alcohol unpleasant.

Sorry but you are quite wrong here. High blood pressure can usually only be controlled by medication. I'm sure you're not seriously suggesting that people with high blood pressure be treated for only 2 years?

Ditto type 2 diabetes, which, despite being associated with weight, is induced by several factors: ethnicity plays a part, as does heredity. There are plenty of thin type 2 diabetics.

Denying treatment after two years would lead to complications, which would cost the NHS a lot more to treat.

Nobody forces anything onto anybody, though, do they?
I read about all the people here who drink a fair bit.
I expect nobody is twisting their arms to drink.
Is it immoral of them if it spirals, because of their own personal reasons?
If it does spiral, and they need support, should it be denied as nobody made them drink?

I think it should be a condition of providing medication that the patient also takes steps to minimise its necessity. A healthy weight is an important factor in controlling blood pressure. Even if some medication is necessary the dosage can help fen be reduced if the patient controls their weight.

Similarly, with type 2 diabetes, blood levels can often be returned to normal by controlling diet or again the medication can be reduced.

We do know that excess weight contributes to, if not causes, both of these conditions. This is a medical fact although people don’t like to hear it.

Of course medication should be provided if needed. But should it be, as it is for my relative, a means of being able to continue with a lifestyle that promotes the condition it treats?

help fen = often

Peasblossom

I think it should be a condition of providing medication that the patient also takes steps to minimise its necessity. A healthy weight is an important factor in controlling blood pressure. Even if some medication is necessary the dosage can help fen be reduced if the patient controls their weight.

Similarly, with type 2 diabetes, blood levels can often be returned to normal by controlling diet or again the medication can be reduced.

We do know that excess weight contributes to, if not causes, both of these conditions. This is a medical fact although people don’t like to hear it.

Of course medication should be provided if needed. But should it be, as it is for my relative, a means of being able to continue with a lifestyle that promotes the condition it treats?

I agree with you in part. But don't forget that mental state often plays a part in losing weight or controlling diabetes. It would be fine if everyone had the self discipline to constantly monitor their diet and lifestyle but unfortunately life isn't so straightforward.
Why do you think Slimming World exists? It's there because people lose weight, put it back on, and so on. If it were just a question of willpower, places like Slimming World would have been out of business years ago.
I think you sound rather judgemental.

Oh dear. I know I do sometimes.

It’s because I’m the sort of person who will always look for a practical solution. A sort of “Now what can I do about that”.

I’m really good at helping people find answers and move forward. Very bad at long term sympathy ?

Blondiescot

MissAdventure

Yes, and if prescribing vape kits reduces spending in smoking related illnesses, then that money can go to those with life threatening illnesses.
I don't see the problem here.

The 'problem' as I see it is that if they can afford to smoke in the first place - which, let's face it, is a hell of an expensive habit these days - then they can afford to buy their own vapes.

I am a smoker, and I can't afford to do it, but it's the one thing that helps me with my stress - even though deep down I do know that actually it doesn't, it is the breathing slowly that helps one to calm down. Currently I am being overwhelmed - buying and selling 4 houses instead of 2 as have moved my mum from Yorkshire to Wiltshire. We are living in squalor as my house is so full of packed boxes we really cannot move. My sale has been halted by the fact that the Land Registry Title is WRONG! My buyers are threatening to pull out etc etc .... I have been smoking now for almost 45 years, I am a nurse and I know what it does BUT I have lost my health, (nothing to do with smoking at all) I have had 24 surgeries in the last 2 decades, I can't eat what I want, I can't drink, I can't have sex - it's the only damned thing I have left!! Doubt it would be free anyway, it would be the cost of a prescription I think, which isn't that much less than a packet of ciggies nowadays?

Peasblossom

Oh dear. I know I do sometimes.

It’s because I’m the sort of person who will always look for a practical solution. A sort of “Now what can I do about that”.

I’m really good at helping people find answers and move forward. Very bad at long term sympathy ?

We're all different Peasblossom. I'm sure you're a lovely person! And it's great to look for practical solutions.

MadeInYorkshire, prescriptions are free here in Scotland, another reason why I would object to vapes being given on prescription. I repeat - anyone who can afford to smoke can afford to buy their own.

My grandson changed from cigarettes to vaping in the thought he was doing right. After a while he had a collapsed lung which is still causing problems and the consultant thought it was the result of vaping. He has now stopped smoking completely. Had the vaping been on prescription he could have sued for compensation-a dangerous line to go down ,definitely no to the prescription idea.