HEALTH chiefs in Hampshire spent a staggering £56m treating illnesses linked to smoking in just one year, the Daily Echo can reveal.

New figures show 32,967 people received treatment for medical conditions caused by smoking cigarettes in 2002-03 - at an average cost of £1,700 each. The bill consists of the costs of GP visits, prescriptions, treatment and operations.

A Hampshire MP has now called for more measures to help smokers to stub out their habit - and said increasing public bans could be the way forward.

Sandra Gidley, Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for health, said: "There does seem to be a lot of initiatives aimed at getting smokers to give up but I don't think they are being pushed actively enough.

"Increasing the number of no smoking areas is one way of tackling it, as it automatically creates fewer opportunities for people to smoke."

The number of smoking-related illnesses being treated in the region soared by 35 per cent since 1997.

Health bosses attributed the leap to smoking-related illnesses being detected earlier.

Southampton Primary Care Trust failed to rise above one-star status in this year's health service ratings because it had not done enough to encourage people to quit, says the government. Last week the Daily Echo revealed plans to be considered this week by Eastleigh Council to ban smoking in public.

Southampton City Council has unveiled proposals to stub out smoking during working hours among its 6,000-strong workforce.

The most recent figures said there are about 327,000 smokers in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight - around 22 per cent of the region's population.

Romsey MP Mrs Gidley said: "When you go to hospitals, you can see people huddled around smoking outside. If you can't get the message across there, it does show the extent of the problem.

"We need to be more aggressive and doctors have to work at pressing people, showing them the evidence and giving them all the support to give up."

The Southampton Primary Care Trust is due to plaster anti-smoking messages across buses and council vehicles in the coming weeks to improve its record at getting people to give up.

It has already introduced Quitter groups and produced anti-smoking radio adverts.

Southampton Itchen MP John Denham, a former Labour health minister, said: "I think that it is right that we spend NHS money on helping people to give up smoking, whether through patches or referring them to Smoke Stop Clinics.

"Although that money is given up-front, there's a huge amount of money that is saved, as well as human suffering, in the future."

Mark Hoban, Conservative MP for Fareham, said: "It is a huge sum of money that is being spent on smoking-related diseases.

"There have been renewed efforts over the past couple of years to highlight the dangers and I think we are seeing less young people who smoke, which is a good thing."

Ian Willmore, at anti-smoking campaign group ASH, said: "These figures show just how expensive and how much of the NHS resources are taken up by illnesses caused by smoking."

Pro-smoking group Forest, however, claimed VAT on tobacco pumped £9.2 billion into the economy every year.

Director Simon Clark, said: "It's difficult to apportion all the blame on smoking.

"Because long term heavy smokers tend to have a generally unhealthy lifestyle, they tend to not get enough exercise, eat the wrong things and all this contributes to ill health.

"The NHS has a duty to treat everyone equally regardless of their lifestyle." The figures, uncovered by the Conservatives in a Parliamentary written answer, showed Greater Manchester treated most patients - 63,570 - while Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire had the fewest - 24,114.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight was 14th out of 28 Strategic Health Authorities.