Figures have shown that people in poorer areas of Newcastle are significantly more likely to smoke, as health bosses bid to stamp out the “uniquely lethal” habit.
City leaders were told on Wednesday that around one in eight adults in Newcastle smokes, but that there are “massive inequality issues” affecting different parts of Tyneside.
Alice Wiseman, Newcastle’s new director of public health, reported that smoking represents a “massive threat to people across the city” but was particularly prevalent in more disadvantaged communities.
Ms Wiseman, who spoke emotionally at a meeting of the city’s Health and Wellbeing Board about how tobacco was a “uniquely lethal product” that killed her father at the age of 54, also spoke of a need to target stop smoking services at pregnant women, people accessing mental health or drug and alcohol recovery services, and refugees and asylum seekers.
She presented figures showing that five of the seven Primary Care Networks (PCNs) in Newcastle, which are collections of GP practices, have a level of active smokers above the national average of 13.6%.
The worst rate is in the West End of the city, with the West Road Medical Centre, Cruddas Park Surgery, and Holmside Medical Group reporting an active smoker rate of 21.5% according to data from the GP Patients Survey.
The four others that also exceed the national rate are the Newcastle Central Health (19.9%), East (16.9%), Outer West (16.9%), and Inner West (15%) PCNs.
The only two that fall beneath the England average are the more affluent suburbs of North Gosforth (11.5%) and Jesmond (6.9%).
Ms Wiseman added that smoking has an estimated cost to the city of Newcastle of £233 million in lost earnings, medical bills, care costs, and fires.
She said that, as well as resulting in early deaths, smoking is also a major financial burden on users and results in them needing to access adult social care services 10 years earlier than non-smokers.
The new Tobacco and Vapes Bill, announced by the Government last year, will effectively raise the legal smoking age by one year every year – meaning that anyone turning 14 or younger this year will never legally be sold a cigarette.
Dr Natalie Crowe, chair of the Newcastle GP Services group, said she felt like “every patient I see” at her practice in Byker is a smoker.
She asked if there was any prospect of giving financial incentives for people to stop smoking, a move that the Government announced some plans for in 2023 – with all pregnant smokers to be offered vouchers of up to £400 to quit, contingent on ongoing engagement with support services and evidence of their smokefree status.
Ms Wiseman replied that any rewards would have to be carefully considered so as not to cause anger among non-smokers.
She added: “It has to be done carefully because we don’t want to restigmatise people who are smoking, but it is something we could look at exploring with test or particular target groups.”
