SMOKERS will be given £50 a month if they quit the habit under a pilot scheme launched yesterday.
Shona Robison, Scotland's minister for public health, officially unveiled the project which is attempting to get 1,000 smokers in Dundee to quit.
NHS Tayside, in a jointly funded pilot scheme with NHS Health Scotland and the Scottish Government, i
s planning to spend £540,000 over the next two years in a bid to persuade the smokers to kick their nicotine addiction.
Smokers who successfully quit will receive vouchers for £12.50 a week which they can spend on groceries for a maximum of three months. But they will have to pass weekly carbon monoxide breath tests at their local pharmacy to prove they are still smoke-free.
Ms Robison yesterday revealed that the Australian government and two other Scottish health boards were already keeping close watch on the progress of the Dundee pilot scheme.
Ms Robison said: "The most important thing anyone can do to improve their health is to quit smoking – it's the biggest preventable cause of ill-health and premature death in Scotland.
"The NHS in Scotland provides a range of tailored help and support for people who want to quit and this is particularly important in deprived areas where the health inequalities people face are even starker."
Asked if people should be rewarded for stopping smoking, she replied: "I am a firm believer in doing what works. Unfortunately, the traditional smoking cessation services, while they are successful, don't reach the most deprived communities and they have not had the same success there for a variety of reasons."
The new scheme covering deprived areas of Dundee follows a successful small-scale pilot project involving expectant mothers in the city.
Under the new scheme, adult smokers who quit will be given £12.50 a week which will be credited to an electronic card which they will be able to redeem at their local Asda supermarket for fresh food and groceries, but not alcohol and cigarettes.
Paul Ballard, the deputy director of public health at NHS Tayside, has overall responsibility for the project. He said: "Currently, there are 36,000 smokers in disadvantaged areas in Dundee and, although current smoking cessation services are working well, we know we need to do more to tackle this.
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He added: "Our aim with this initiative is to get those people, who would otherwise have carried on smoking and developed a heart condition or cancer, to quit.
"We believe that by offering this incentive, we will be helping to deliver a change in the health of those who need it most."
NHS Tayside is expecting 1,800 smokers to join the scheme and predicts that 50 per cent of those taking part will successfully quit.
