Evidence that smoking restrictions and raising cigarette taxes affect smokers' behaviour is limited. In a paper published in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health, Tai-Yin Wu and colleagues carried out a study of 200 people in Taipei City, Taiwan to evaluate the association between knowledge of smoking legislation and seeking help in smoking cessation. They compared smokers who sought assistance in clinics/classes and smokers who did not. Both banning smoking and increasing prices had positive effects on smokers' behavior, but the effect size of the latter was larger. Better knowledge of the regulations was associated with greater efforts at smoking cessation. Tai-Yin Wu and colleagues concluded that increased knowledge of smoking regulations is associated with seeking help for smoking.
NHS budgets are under considerable pressure. It is therefore unsurprising that many NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) In England will aim to prioritise price in contract awards, But this approach is a significant threat to community-centred healthcare. While competitive tendering is a legally required, an excessive focus on costs in awarding NHS contracts risks overshadowing key factors such as established community trust, local expertise, and the long-term impact on continuity of care. This shift towards cheaper, often external, commercial providers threatens to cut the links between communities and their local health services. The argument that competitive tendering is solely about legal compliance, and not cost, is undermined by the very nature of such tendering, which by design encourages the lowest bid. This approach risks eroding the social fabric of local healthcare provision, where established relationships and understanding of specific community needs are essential. Establishe...
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