UK NHS: Vaping Could Save the Health Service £500 Million a Year

According to overseas media reports today, a study says that if half of the UK’s adult smokers switched to vapes, it could save the UK’s publicly funded healthcare system (the NHS) more than £500 million a year.

Researchers at Brunel University London used data from NHS Digital, the Royal College of Physicians, and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to determine smoking rates in each region.

They found that from 2019 to 2021, 13.6% of people aged 18 and over in England smoked. The Southeast had the lowest smoking rate at 12.2%, while the Midlands stood at 14.1%, the Northwest at 14.6%, and the Northeast and Yorkshire at 15%.

The study, published in the British Journal of Healthcare Management, shows that if 50% of these smokers switched to vaping devices, hospital admissions would fall by 13%, equivalent to savings of £518 million.

This figure was calculated by examining causes of death linked to smoking, along with data on the risk of developing five diseases due to smoking habits: cancer, heart disease, stroke, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema.

The research team calculated total healthcare spending by multiplying the average ward cost per bed day for each specific disease by the average length of hospital stay for that disease. The researchers said that in the Northeast and Yorkshire alone, if half of smokers switched to vaping devices, it could save £148 million.

Professor Francesco Moscone, an expert in business economics at Brunel University London, said: “These diseases place a heavy burden on the NHS, and we know that pressure on the NHS is continuing to grow.”

He added that while the long-term effects of vaping are still unknown, previous research suggests that vaping “can reduce exposure to the main chemicals responsible for health risks by 90%.”

Although smoking costs the NHS well over £2 billion each year, the greatest public finance benefit from reducing smoking would come from lower spending on social security and social care, which together amount to more than twice the NHS’s smoking-related costs.

In 2019, the UK government outlined its ambition to make England “smoke-free” by 2030. In April, it also launched a “swap to stop” campaign, offering vaping devices to 1 million smokers to encourage them to quit smoking.

Professor Moscone said that “embracing the transition from cigarettes to vaping devices will provide us with an important opportunity to regain momentum and stay aligned with our ambitious 2030 smoke-free plan.”

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), added: “This study provides further evidence that the government’s ‘swap to stop’ campaign, which helps smokers quit by providing 1 million vaping devices, will help reduce pressure on our overstretched NHS.”

Ms. Arnott said that “misperceptions about the harms of vaping” are “a barrier for smokers” and “must be urgently addressed.” At the same time, some organizations have expressed concern about the trend of vaping among young people and children, and calls are growing for stricter regulation of its marketing and packaging.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that while vaping devices are “a better alternative for adult smokers,” it is indeed concerned about “the growing number of young people who vape.”

How to balance the benefits of vaping for smokers with the need to prevent risks to underage non-smokers remains an unresolved issue.