The National Health Service have been providing public healthcare services to everyone in the UK, including visitors, since 1948. Despite its cuts and budgets, people in England have been experiencing blissful healthcare treatments for over 60 years from the NHS.
The NHS are known to be one of the largest and most beneficial healthcare providers in the UK. I’m sure we can all say we’re eternally grateful to the NHS for being there for us whether we had loved ones who have been sick with the flu or if it’s been an unfortunate terminally ill disease like lung cancer, which can be caused by smoking.
Regardless of the illness, the NHS has continued to provide exceptional healthcare services to all patients.
Ever since vaping has grown in popularity, e-cigarettes are now one of the top four alternatives to stop smoking on the NHS website. In fact, Public Health England have claimed that e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than smoking and has proved that in most cases, e-cigarettes are a better alternative than nicotine patches or gum.
Similarly, Cancer Research UK (2017) have conducted studies where they have found:
“Existing evidence showing that e-cigarettes and NRT are far safer than smoking.”
With all the controversy that surrounds e-cigarettes in the media, even Alison Cox from Cancer Research UK has claimed that recent:
“Studies add to growing evidence that e-cigarettes are a much safer alternative to tobacco, and suggests the long-term effects of these products will be minimal.”
But what does this mean for vaping and the NHS?
With vaping on the rise, there has been hearsay about e-cigarettes being prescribed under the NHS as a means of quitting smoking. Although this has yet to be confirmed, there are already other stop smoking services that promote e-cigarettes so if you or a friend are looking to quit smoking, check out your local NHS stop smoking service.
However, people have raised concerns on the safety of e-cigarettes even though they have proved to be a successful aid in helping smokers to quit.
Although doctors cannot prescribe e-cigarettes yet, vapers should remain hopeful that once medicinally licensed e-cigarette products become available on the market, GPs could potentially prescribe them.
Do you think e-cigarettes should be prescribe by the NHS? Let us know in the comments section.
Until the next blog post, live long and vape!
