BBC News Online: Health

'Ban nicotine patches on NHS'

Instead, representatives at the British Medical Association annual conference said patients should pay for the treatment themselves.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, from Stanmore, north London, said it was a basic rule of smoking cessation programmes that a patient must stop smoking completely before starting nicotine replacment, and must not smoke during the course - to do so would result in possible nicotine poisoning.

Therefore, although nicotine gum or patches could cost up to £21 a week, somebody who gave up smoking a packet of cigarettes a day would save £25 a week.

No additional cost

Dr Nagpaul said: "Nicotine replacement therefore does not incure any additional cost to the individual, since the money which paid for the cigarettes is instead used to purchase nicotine replacement, and the individual, if anything, has a few pounds change per week.

"There is therefore no logical reason on the grounds of unaffordability for nicotine replacement to be available on the NHS. To do so would unnecessarily divert precious NHS resources away from other pressing priorities."

Dr Douglas Newberry, from Woking, urged doctors to vote against the proposal. He said a greater proportion of smokers can from the lower socio-economic classes, who could not be expected to stump up the cost of smoking cessation programmes upfront.

GP Dr David Bailey told the conference that passing the motion would once again paint doctors as "judgemental and paternalistic".

Four types of nicotine replacment therapies that have been licensed since 1997 are currently available on NHS prescription.

The government has also made the use of nicotine replacement a central part of its anti-smoking strategy.