Vaping-Related NHS Hospitalisations Not Tracked In Doncaster
The NHS trust in Doncaster admitted it has no way of monitoring hospital admissions as a result of vaping.
Doncaster’s main hospital trust has revealed that it does not record how many patients are admitted with vaping-related illnesses.
Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said in response to a Freedom of Information request that it was unable to provide the data as a result of “no usable inpatient ICD10 diagnosis codes relating to vaping.”
These codes specify why a patient has been admitted to the hospital. The statement added, “It is possible that future editions of ICD or SNOMED may contain this level of detail, but that will be in future years.”
The Freedom of Information request was submitted by media literacy charity The Student View.
In 2019, Doncaster Council began drawing up plans to discourage residents from smoking in social areas in the town. The Doncaster Free Press reported that “Electronic cigarettes will also be included in the proposed smoke-free zones as council bosses say they are ‘too new for us to fully understand the health impacts’ and it could be ‘potentially confusing’ for members of the public and children.”
Dr Victor Joseph, a public health consultant at Doncaster Council, told the Free Press: “Smoking remains a public health issue both nationally and here in Doncaster and we need to do something about it because we have higher rates than a lot of the country,”
“On the ban on e-cigarettes, many children will not differentiate between vaping and those who smoke tobacco and it’s to change the culture and they will not see the action of someone puffing on a product like this.”