Every smoker will be offered help to quit when they go into hospital under a new NHS money-saving crackdown that has sharply divided supporters and critics.

Problem drinkers and smokers will be helped by expert teams during their stay on a ward, NHS England announced.

People who are alcohol-dependent will be helped by specialists to stop drinking, while a drive targeting smokers admitted to hospital will affect an estimated 500,000 people, including pregnant women and their partners.

NHS chiefs say the savings will vastly outweigh the costs of £183m over five years of the schemes.

The bulk – £157m – will target smoking, which costs the NHS £2.6bn every year. Alcohol problems, which cost the NHS £3.5bn every year, will receive £26m of funding.

But critics said it sounded like “mass lifestyle engineering”, and tantamount to bullying vulnerable people.

The measures, part of the NHS’s 10-year plan announced last year but delayed repeatedly because of uncertainty around Brexit, follow a renewed focus by health chiefs on prevention to curb demand for services.

It comes after drastic cuts to smoking cessation schemes in England, with local authority public-health budgets having been slashed for several years running.

A further cut of £85m is due in 2019-20, and the Nuffield Trust says total cuts between 2015 and 2021 equate to a real-terms reduction of £600m.

Tobacco kills 1,500 people a week so helping people to quit when admitted to hospital helps them, their families and the taxpayer Duncan Selbie

NHS England bosses say every smoker in hospital will be offered support to quit, with personalised bedside care, therapy and follow-up help when they have been discharged.

A scheme is already running in Manchester that is expected to save £10m and more than 30,000 hospital beds across the city, and it will be replicated across the country over the next five years.

NHS figures show that the 10 per cent of new mothers who smoke are doubling the risk of stillbirth and tripling the chances of sudden infant death.

Alcohol care teams will be rolled out in the top 25 per cent of hospitals for alcohol-related admissions to urge patients who misuse alcohol to give up and stay off it. Up to 50 hospitals will be involved.

Alcohol-related admissions have grown by 17 per cent in a decade, and in 2016-17 they accounted for 2.1 per cent of admissions.

Health chiefs say the measures could prevent 50,000 admissions and almost 250,000 bed days over five years.

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said: “Drinking to excess can destroy families, with the NHS too often left to pick up the pieces.

“Alcohol and tobacco addiction remain two of the biggest causes of ill health and early death, and the right support can save lives.”

But Simon Clark, director of smokers’ group Forest, said: “It’s stressful enough being in hospital without the additional pressure of being hounded to stop smoking.

“Pressuring smokers to quit, especially if they’re in hospital for a non-smoking-related reason, is an invasion of privacy and tantamount to bullying.

“No one should be lectured about their lifestyle while they’re at their most vulnerable.”

And Sean Gabb, former director of the Libertarian Alliance, said the move smacked of oppression.

“We pay our taxes and present ourselves to the NHS for treatment and should receive treatment. The NHS is funded by a collective compulsory levy and is a compulsory pooling of risk.

“So it’s one thing for an insurance company to tell us what locks to have but quite another for the NHS to tell us to stop eating or drinking what we want.”

He said the argument that it would save money was “an excuse to employ a large number of prodnoses” and the move was a step towards “mass lifestyle engineering”.

Toby Green, of the Royal Society for Public Health, welcomed the announcements but called for England to follow Scotland and introduce a minimum unit price on alcohol.

He said: “We’re particularly encouraged by the commitment to provide support for smoking cessation to every smoker admitted to hospital – a measure we have been calling for some time.

“At the same time, local authority-funded stop smoking services are vital and remain hugely effective, and it is indeed a great shame that cuts to the public health grant have resulted in declining availability and access over recent years.”

Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Public Health England, said: “Investing in prevention is the smartest thing the NHS can do. Tobacco kills 1,500 people a week so helping people to quit when admitted to hospital helps them, their families and the taxpayer.”

NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday Show all 18 1 /18 NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday Nurses test the hearing of a newborn child Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday The waiting room is busy in Milton Keynes University Hospital Reuters NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday On Ward 24, two nurses work at the nurses station Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday In A&E, a porter rushes a patient through the corridor Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday A surgical team prepares a patient for their operation Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday In the physiotherapy department, patients are treated in the hydrotherapy pool Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday On Ward 8, an inpatient awaits visitors Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday In the physiotherapy department, amputees take a class Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday A junior doctor is at work in the staff room Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday A surgical team prepares a patient for their operation Reuters NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday An inpatient has her hair washed by the staff hairdressers Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday In the audiology department, a mother watches on as her son is given a hearing test Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday On Ward 8, staff serve lunch to the patients Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday On Ward 24, a patient waits on their bed Reuters NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday On Ward 8, a cleaner is at work Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday A nurse takes blood from a patient Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday On Ward 8, an inpatient receives a visitor Reuters/Hannah McKay NHS at 70: Pride and worry as free health service celebrates birthday Inpatient Donald Ritson lies in bed in Ward 24 in Milton Keynes University Hospital Reuters

Deborah Arnott, of Health Charity ASH, said the plan was what they had long called for. “It is disappointing, however, that at the same time that the NHS is receiving additional funding, public health budgets continue to be cut,” she added.