SMOKERS are being urged to help ease the strain on NHS staff by seeking help to stub out their habit.

The deadly habit resulted in more than 100,000 hospital admissions in Scotland during 2017 and was the primary reason for around 51,400 patients over 35 being admitted to hospital that year.

However, the figures are encouraging, with the number of admissions due to smoking down 11 per cent over the last decade.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “People are living longer, healthier lives, but, despite our best efforts, we know deeply ingrained social inequalities persist.

“Our tobacco action plan focuses on addressing health inequalities and targeting smoking rates in the communities where people find it most difficult to quit.

“The number of smokers in Scotland has fallen in recent years and we are committed to reducing this further, particularly in the most deprived areas, where there are the highest smoking rates.”

And today recognises National No Smoking Day, which encourages people to thinks of way they can break free from cigarettes and quit.

The campaign is an annual health awareness day that begun in 1984 and for 2019, the NHS are asking smokers to ‘pick your way’ with the hash tag #TellUsYourWay of how people intend to break the chain.

For more information on how to stop smoking, click here.