The NHS’s failure to help smokers quit is “as negligent as not treating cancer”, top doctors say.

Every smoker who goes into hospital should be treated for tobacco dependency alongside any other ailments, according to a report by the Royal College of Physicians.

It calls for stop-smoking services to be a “routine component of all hospital care”, offered on an opt-out rather than opt-in basis to the 3,000 smokers admitted each day. The policy would double the rate of quitting, evidence suggests.