To think we shouldn't be funding this on the NHS?

Honestly you have no idea what is going on with that patient. How do you know they aren’t terminal and in the last weeks of their life and don’t fancy going through nicotine withdrawal in that time. Nurses absolutely do not have to do this, that nurse sounds like she was doing the patient a kindness.

I've been completely crippled with a piles flare-up this Christmas - first caused by pregnancy years ago, but I fell off the wagon of water, fibre and exercise thanks to a hectic month of travel and social functions so "lifestyle factors". One could argue I've done it to myself. Should I not have been allowed to be seen by the doctors at A&E on Christmas Eve?

There are so many illnesses that are preventable or ameliorated by good lifestyle factors that we can't use that as a reason to treat or not treat on the NHS. What we could do is ban smoking completely at a national level, or make it so expensive as to be out of reach to most. I'm always amazed how many people smoke considering the cost already.

They can increase the taxes. At the moment smoking is affordable for the majority of smokers.

It's what they do in America. Your insurance stops paying out and you die. Lovely.

A lot of people are clinically obese without looking very fat so I hope your slim OP and never get a condition that impacts your mobility.

I don't drink or smoke but I can't begrudge paying anyone who drinks and smokes themselves to death nhs treatment.

Childless people pay for other parents schooling. Should all that stop? If we did things like this you'd live nicely surrounded by abject poverty. Not good for crime etc. Uneducated adults streetwise adults surrounding you in your dotage. Don't ever get old.

Posts like this make me wonder why I volunteer as a school governor. 99% of people it seems only do things to benefit themselves yet except schools to exist who legally need us volunteers. What's in it for me? Like what's in it for you paying for a smokers chemo?

Change the system and pray you never need to get from society what you didn't pay into. Never get old. Everyone for themselves.

Oh OP, your ideas are not new. The idea of treatment being available only for "worthy" people had been bandied around for decades.
But who is a perfect, worthy person?
As a nation we provide health care for all, without judgement.
I agree that a lot more work needs to be done on prevention of illness and promotion of healthy living (get Joe Wickes on the telly instead of bloody bake off) but to ration treatment to those who you feel are worthy of it is frankly disgusting.
I'm guessing that you have enjoyed a level of privilege in your life that others haven't, you can afford healthy meals and have the time to make them, you can pay for exercise classes and moreover, you were brought up to value these things. Others weren't so lucky.
I would hate to move to an American or indian system of healthcare where the poor are just left behind to die.

So do they not have to pay tax like you do if they do not get treatment? You cannot take money from someone and not provide a service - that is theft.

That would mean you pay more if you remove all those who have self inflicted injuries/illnesses etc get to stop paying that tax so you would have to cover the costs yourself.

If only the government agreed with you & already applied taxes on it......

Oh wait! They do

That is awful to read.

I woke up to you tube’s algorithm to an old video of Hannah Hauxwell ( spelling?) where she lived on the high peaks , alone, farming in the 1980’s.
( time of film)

She spoke of having been hospitalised for 10 weeks and how she loved it, the company, being cared for.

Returning to her lonely farm was hard, she said.

She had animals, of course, but was very isolated.

When people make suggestions like this, I’m always curious as to where they would draw the line.

You could argue that a lot of things people are treated for in hospital are self-inflicted.
I fractured my wrist as a child after falling off my bike. Would have appeared to have been an accident but it wasn’t really. I had deliberately crashed my bike into a wall because I wanted a new one with tassels on the handlebars (devious little sod).

Everybody self inflicts their own health problems to a degree though don't they ?

Women who purposely get pregnant or go ahead with risky pregnancies can't really be expected to avoid NHS care

Drink driving kills and ruins families but yet it’s allowed to drive after a drink. I’d ban driving if the person has had an alcoholic drink in the last 24hours.

Cars and vans are the biggest source of nitrogen oxides in the UK, and pollution from cars cost the UK £6b per year in healthcare costs.

Your choice to drive is a hazard to everyone, not just you, and I think you should pay for it.

(Or you know, just make sure that healthcare is delivered equally to all, without moral judgement)

The difference between smoking and most of the other things cited on here (skateboarding, driving, sports/exercise, pregnancy, etc) is that there is no benefit to society and individuals from smoking

What benefit to society does skateboarding provide🤷‍♀️.

You know what?

You can fuck off

But you need to balance that with enough exercise because the risks of being sedentary are self inflicted too. You need to find the balance between at least 150mins of moderate intensity exercise per week and injuring yourself doing that.

I think horse riding is more dangerous for health than taking class A drugs. Should we not give NHS treatment to people who ride horses as it's "self inflicted" by your definition?

YABVU

My partner was an alcoholic (and depressed, often goes hand in hand). He'd probably be dead now if it wasn't for the NHS. Alcoholism is a disease.
He's got an amazing life now. Teetotal, and really into fitness.
I don't see how he shouldn't have received help.
Dangerous, crazy thoughts you have there.

You do know that when a lot of older people started that warning wasn't there?

Smokers attract a lot of criticism but drinkers don't. I find that odd. Drinking has a massive impact on health, costs a fortune and leads to all sorts of difficulties. Yet no one really seems bothered. I get the passive smoking argument but drinkers too inflict loads of secondary harm on other people. Lots of bad decisions made under the influence of drink more perhaps than made by someone with a vanilla and lemon vape in their hand.

Most people who are obese get refused treatment anyway and have to go back repeatedly before they get anywhere. That costs the NHS more than if they got the same treatment initially.

Smoking is a choice and one that should be taxed greatly. Those stuck in secondhand /third hand smoke don’t have a choice on avoiding the effects of smoking. It’s these people whose health is ruined due to selfish smokers.

Mother died of emphysema

She started smoking during WWII where it was pretty much encouraged and very few didn't smoke

She was addicted by her 30s and died in her 50s

You don't want to know what I think of you but I am surprised how distressing this thread is for me and she's been dead nearly 50 years

The difference between smoking and most of the other things cited on here (skateboarding, driving, sports/exercise, pregnancy, etc) is that there is no benefit to society and individuals from smoking. Zero, zip. Only damage in the forms of poor health, pollution, waste (vapes) and grossness, and it also hurts others in the form of second hand smoke. And in some families, children go without while their parents find the money for cigarettes and vapes.

YANBU

Really?

£342 million a quarter in uk for revenue on cigarettes on one website www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tobacco-bulletin/tobacco-statistics-commentary-april-2024

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alcohol-drugs-and-tobacco-commissioning-support-pack/tobacco-commissioning-support-pack-2019-to-2020-principles-and-indicators

https://ash.org.uk/media-centre/news/press-releases/14bn-a-year-up-in-smoke-economic-toll-of-smoking-in-england-revealed

then social care costs of caring for people with disease caused by smoking

And let's not get on to those who may be deemed "not worthy" of treatment OP

I mean, whose more worthy... the stabbed and battered pedophile or the 80yr old smoker with COPD?

Surely that's another way of. discriminating.

hint: it's not