30 March 2022

UK

Health and Care Bill: Durham councillors ask MPs for support

Public satisfaction with NHS sinks to lowest level since 1997

Northern Ireland: Derry  health forum's new campaign encouraging people “turn ash to cash”

International

Parliamentary Activity

UK

Health and Care Bill: Durham councillors ask MPs for support

Council health watchdogs have written to the region’s MPs asking for support on anti-smoking campaigns as the new Health and Care Bill is debated in Parliament.

Durham County Council’s cabinet member for health Councillor Paul Sexton said: “We’ve just agreed that we will draft a letter after this meeting to MPs asking for support.”

He later said he supported the Health and Care Bill which is being discussed in the House of Commons on Wednesday (30 March).

He added: “Part of that is around funding for anti-smoking campaigns, tougher levies on the manufacturers so that we can hopefully get more funding back into prevention.”

Ailsa Rutter OBE, director of tobacco control programme Fresh, asked councillors to contact MPs to reinforce support in the tobacco levy vote in the Commons: “It’s needed, it’s wanted, it’s workable,” she said in a board meeting on Tuesday (29 March) […] “We want to see a 'polluter pays' levy. They should be made to pay. It would help to fund campaigns. We want to improve the funding that goes to stop smoking support.”

She said there was a majority vote in support of this in the House of Lords last week: “It is there in the House of Commons tomorrow. I think it is the time to feel bold and ambitious.”

Source: The Northern Echo, 30 March 2022

Public satisfaction with NHS sinks to lowest level since 1997

Public satisfaction with the NHS has sunk to its lowest level since 1997, with just 36% of voters content with the way the health service is run and performing, according to research published by The King’s Fund and Nuffield Trust.
 

Satisfaction has dropped 17% since 2020 – the biggest drop since records began in 1983. The collapse has been driven by frustration over long waiting times for all main types of NHS care, the service’s persistent staff shortages and a widespread belief that the government has denied it the funding it needs. The shift has occurred among people of all ages, income groups, sexes and party-political affiliations.

The Covid pandemic and the ensuing disruption to NHS services have deepened the fall in satisfaction but unhappiness – especially with access to GP appointments and routine surgery – was evident well before then. The NHS has seen a decade-long funding squeeze and a failure to address the chronic lack of staff, the thinktanks added.

“People are often struggling to get the care they need, and identified access to general practice, waiting times for hospital care and staff shortages as areas that need to improve,” said Dan Wellings, a senior fellow at the King’s Fund. These findings contrast with the representative survey of 3,112 Britons undertaken in September and October, which found strong enduring support across voting lines for its founding principles; “People can be very supportive of the NHS and be dissatisfied simultaneously,” said Prof John Appleby, the Nuffield Trust’s director of research and chief economist.

Source: The Guardian, 30 March 2022

See also: The King's Fund - Public satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2021: Results from the British Social Attitudes survey

Northern Ireland: Derry health forum's new campaign encouraging people “turn ash to cash”

Brandywell and Bogside Health Forum and The Healthy Living Centre Alliance have launched "Make March your Month to Quit" with smoking remaining a leading cause of preventable disease and premature death in Northern Ireland.
 

The campaign features a "turn your ash into cash" scheme with Healthy Living Centre staff available to advise smokers on how to convert ash into cash.
 

Those involved in the campaign say that smokers who smoke 20 cigarettes a day could save £4,346 over a year.
 

A spokesperson for the campaign said: "Imagine the difference that money could make to you and your family. If you think of anyone who has smoked for 50 years averaging 20 cigarettes a day, it would amount to a whopping £217,308. Imagine what you could do with that money, the holidays, the family trips and the memories you could make.”
 

"The Alliance has prioritised smoking as an area of special attention, especially after the impact that COVID 19 had on the people and the community. We know that smokers are at higher risk of COVID 19 and the lasting impact of this. So as a result we are coming to a community near you. Various Healthy Living Centres will be hosting Stop Smoking Programmes, helping you to kick the habit once and for all.”
 

Colette Rogers strategic lead for Tobacco from the Public Health Agency said: “We are encouraging people to use No Smoking Month as an opportunity to begin their quit journey and improve their health.”
 

Source: Belfast Live, 29 March 2022

International

Smoking to be banned at all Isle of Man health settings

Smoking will be banned at all health and care settings on the Isle of Man from Friday, the health and social care minister, Lawrie Hooper, has said. Care homes and sheltered living complexes are due to become smoke-free, after hospital sites and GP practices applied the ban last year.
 

Mr Hooper said it was part of plans to cut the number of smokers from 12% of the population to under 5% by 2030.
 

The ban, which has been rolled out in stages, applies to all staff, residents and visitors at facilities run by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and health care provider Manx Care.
 

It was introduced as part of a push to provide "healthy and safe environments for all, as well as helping to prevent avoidable smoking-related ill-health by encouraging people to quit smoking", a DHSC spokesman said.
 

Mr Hooper said the aim was not to stigmatise smokers, but to "instead establish smoke free spaces for everyone to benefit from and to de-normalise smoking to prevent future generations from starting".
 

Source: BBC News, 29 March 2022

Thailand redesigns warning labels on cigarette packs showing extreme effects of smoking

Thailand has redesigned the warning labels on cigarette packages, which show the harmful effects of smoking. Retailers and wholesalers across the country must start selling cigarettes with the new packaging from 11 April.
 

The new labelling will be in line with an official announcement made in 2021 by the Public Health Ministry under the Tobacco Products Control Act. Cigarette packages must be sold with revised warnings as well as updated graphical labels that illustrate details of the harmful effects of smoking, according to the deputy director-general of the Department of Disease Control.

Anyone using the name or trademark of cigarette brands in publications for advertising purposes face an up to six-month jail sentence and a fine of up to 500,000 baht, as well as a fee of up to 50,000 baht each day until the cigarette sales are in line with Thai law.

Source: The Thaiger, 30 March 2022

Parliamentary Activity

Parliamentary Debate - Smokefree England