The Scottish Government is spending £15 million on schemes to help people kick their cigarette habit but most of it is going up in smoke.
More than 77,000 patients have fallen “off the radar” of a flagship SNP health initiative, with just 5.5% of those having taken part successfully quitting smoking over a year-long period.
That compares to more than two-thirds of people who had been “lost to follow-up” or whose smoking status was “unknown”, while more than a quarter admitted taking up the habit again over the same period.
Ministers were last night told to “get a handle” on the policy and justify the money being spent on the Scottish Government’s smoking cessation scheme.
The Scottish Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said: “It is well worth spending money on stopping people trying to smoke, but what is the point if tens of thousands who start the scheme are falling off the radar?
“It may be the best scheme in the world or the worst. We simply do not know.
“If millions of pounds are to be continually pumped into this programme, the Scottish Government really must get a handle on collecting the evidence.
“As it stands only 5% of people successfully quit a year into embarking on smoking cessation. That has to be improved and the best way to start is not allowing two-thirds of people to slip off the map.”
The figures emerged in NHS Information Services Division’s annual report. The year-long look at the success rates of stopping smoking relates to 2011, while shorter term statistics focused on 2012.
The report said that 44,261 of the 116,198 people who attempted to give up smoking last year were recorded as successful one month after the “quit date”.
Over the same period, 51,714 people were registered “lost to follow-up/unknown smoking status”.
The report says this would commonly be due to a failure to make contact with clients or participants not returning follow-up questionnaires.
There were a total of 112,812 quit attempts made in 2011, with 42,450 recorded as a successful quit at one month, 17,810 at three months and 6,214 at 12 months. That represents a quit rate of 37.6% at one month, 15.8% at three months and 5.5% after a year.
The percentages of cases “lost to follow-up/smoking status unknown” at one, three and 12 months were 44.7%, 61.3% and 68.9%.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Over 116,000 quit attempts were made during 2012, the highest number since national monitoring began.
“During 2012 NHS Scotland smoking cessation services helped over 44,000 people to be smoke- free after one month the highest number since national monitoring began.
“NHS Scotland is on course to meet its target to deliver at least 80,000 successful quits at one month post quit over the three years ending March 2014.
“We have invested record sums in smoking cessation £11 million per annum for board smoking cessation services. There has also been around £4m per annum for cessation via the Public Health Service Community Pharmacy scheme.
“Work is under way to improve the procedures for longer term follow-up.
“An expert working group is in the process of reporting findings and recommendations to the Scottish Government for further consideration.”
In a blog post on the statistics, Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) Scotland said: “When you examine how much it costs the NHS, it works out to be very cost-effective to provide.”