ASK most smokers if they would like to give up and the resounding answer will be yes.

But the health authority for Southend, Rochford and Castle Point is missing its target for the number of people who are quitting.

To combat the problem, NHS South East Essex has launched a new campaign, which could include incentives to encourage smokers to stop.

To tempt smokers, particularly pregnant women, to quit health chiefs are looking at ideas including prize draws, cash incentives or gift vouchers.

Health authority bosses say they are significantly below their plans to achieve 2,700 quitters between April 1 last year to March 31.

NHS South East Essex’s performance is just over half of the target set by the Department for Health, with two months to go.

Andrew Pike, chief executive of NHS South East Essex, said: “This is the single biggest high-profile target we’re not hitting.

“The target goes up next year and will keep rising quite steeply each year. I’m happy to introduce incentives to help smokers, including expectant mothers, to quit, similar to the prize draw we are running for young people doing chlamydia tests.”

However, when the Echo spoke to smokers in south Essex, some felt incentives would not help them stop. Dave Rose, 63, retired, of Clifftown Road, Southend, said: “There is no incentive that would make me give up smoking. It’s a lifetime habit and in my case a calming influence as well.

“I have a close friend, who is 60 and has just stopped, just like that, without help and that has helped with some of the medical issues he’s had. It’s not a question of incentives. It’s down to individual choice.”

A discussion about the problem at the health authority’s board meeting came up with various ideas, but some board members, including Katherine Kirk, chairman of the board, were against the plans.

She said the health benefits and cash saved when not buying cigarettes should be enough for people.

Jenny Wheeler, stop smoking service manager for NHS South East Essex, said: “Smoking in pregnancy is harmful to babies and mothers-to-be and we are currently looking at new ways to encourage and support pregnant smokers to give up. Incentive schemes, such as prize draws or gift vouchers, are currently being explored, but no firm decisions have been made at this stage.”

Expectant women who smoke are to be targeted by a new campaign this week.

Specially-trained stop smoking pregnancy advisers, midwives and other health professionals will help advise women how to quit.

Two days after giving up smoking, the nicotine leaves the mother and baby’s bodies, meaning less morning sickness, fewer complications and a more content baby.

However, the dangers of smoking during pregnancy include miscarriage, bleeding, nausea, poor health for the baby, slow growth of the foetus and cot death. Dr Andrea Atherton, director of public health, said there had been a huge uptake to the Stop Smoking Service at the start of the year and those extra quitters will not be included until the next statistics update.

She said: “Uptake after the New Year was affected because of a problem we had in the second week of January when the stop smoking phone line was down for 11 days.

“It’s obviously quite a key time with New Year quitters, but the first day the line was back, it was red hot and ringing.”

Figures from NHS South West Essex show Basildon and Thurrock have the highest percentage of smoking mothers-to-be in Essex – 29 and 28 per cent respectively.

However, there is help at hand. NHS South West Essex employs a full-time stop smoking co-ordinator, who specifically deals with pregnant smokers.

In Southend, Rochford district and Castle Point, figures for January to March last year showed 17 per cent of pregnant women declared they smoked during their pregnancy.

The national average is 24 per cent.

In Southend, the stop smoking service intends to continue and expand its work with local businesses to get them to help staff.

A publicity display is also planned at the Royals shopping centre, Southend, for a week starting on Monday.

This effort is not the first attempt to try different ways to encourage people to give up smoking.

In 2007 south Essex primary care trusts, in conjunction with the Echo, helped smokers give up by supplying five weeks’ worth of nicotine replacement therapy at a reduced cost or free for those on benefits

  • The NHS Pregnancy Smoking Helpline can be contacted on 0800 1699169.