Should pregnant women be given vouchers to quit smoking?
Offering shopping vouchers worth a total of £400 to pregnant smokers makes them more likely to quit the habit, say researchers.
The trial was carried out in an area covered by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which has large pockets of deprivation. More than 20% of the women offered vouchers stopped smoking, compared with 9% given normal NHS support alone.
The women in the trial used the vouchers at High Street stores such as Iceland, Argos and Mothercare.
The researchers from Glasgow and Stirling universities say providing the vouchers is cost-effective for the NHS, because smoking in pregnancy raises the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth.
The Royal College of Midwives criticised the controversial method, saying it amounted to “bribery”.
What are your views? Should the NHS incentivise and fund pregnant women to give up smoking? Should bribery be encouraged to motivate people when it comes to making health improvement choices?
What are your views on this?
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Despite the fact that I find this pretty outrageous - being pragmatic, if it actually stops them from smoking and harming the baby as well as removing a negative influence in the baby's new home, £400 is pretty cheap in the long run.
It upsets me that people have to be financially rewarded to make such a fundamentally important commitment to their own child's well being - but if that's how it is, I'd rather base it on the health of the child, by any means.
I wonder how many of the 11% will return to smoking once they've had the voucher or birthed the child, though. That's an important factor that has been left out, and has to be included in any equation used to project long term savings for the NHS.