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Care Opinion

Staff smoking outside Stobhill Hospital

Posted By hotandbothered

"Staff smoking outside Stobhill Hospital"

About: New Stobhill Hospital / GP Out-of-Hours Emergency Service

(as the patient),

I had to use the GP Out of Hours Service at Stobhill hospital on Saturday afternoon.  Whilst the service at the Out of Hours service was excellent (despite me just rocking up and not phoning in advance - sorry) I was very angry with what I saw when I went to go home.

I had parked in the car park at the back of the inpatient unit and when I drove away I spotted a Clinical Support Worker, in full uniform, sitting cigarette in hand in the seats immediately outside the door of the ward.

The sign that said this was a no-smoking site could clearly be seen.

Whilst I can understand patients smoking in areas where they shouldn't be not being challenged, there is no excuse for staff.  If it is as blatant as it was on Saturday afternoon then there is obviously tacit management approval for it.

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Responses

Response from Lorna Fairlie, Patient Experience, Public Involvement Project Manager, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 5 years ago
Lorna Fairlie
Patient Experience, Public Involvement Project Manager,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

I work in a small team in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde which seeks to involve patients and carers in the work of the NHS. The biggest part of my role is in managing feedback projects across the Board area, one of which is Patient Opinion. It is my job to give our patients and carers the opportunity to give us feedback, and to make sure that this is passed to the right people to help us improve the services we provide.

Submitted on 01/08/2018 at 16:29
Published on Care Opinion at 17:37

Dear hotandbothered,

First of all I am really glad that you had such a positive experience at our Out of Hours Service - I know the team will be pleased to hear that.

I understand your upset at seeing a member of staff smoking outside the entrance to the ward, and I know that this is a frustration that is felt by many of the people who use our hospitals. There are a number of ways that we are trying to reduce the numbers of people smoking on hospital premises, particularly just outside entrances to hospital, including the signage that you mention and regular patrols to ask smokers to move away from the area. It does however remain a challenging area.

I have asked my colleagues in Facilities to comment on this, in particular because in this case it was a member of staff that you were aware of, and so I hope to be able to come back to you as soon as possible with further information about that specifically.

Thank you for taking the time to get in touch,

Best Wishes

Lorna

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Response from Lorna Fairlie, Patient Experience, Public Involvement Project Manager, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 5 years ago
Lorna Fairlie
Patient Experience, Public Involvement Project Manager,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

I work in a small team in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde which seeks to involve patients and carers in the work of the NHS. The biggest part of my role is in managing feedback projects across the Board area, one of which is Patient Opinion. It is my job to give our patients and carers the opportunity to give us feedback, and to make sure that this is passed to the right people to help us improve the services we provide.

Submitted on 10/08/2018 at 09:02
Published on Care Opinion at 09:43

Dear hotandbothered,

I appreciate how upsetting it must have been to see a member of staff smoking at the entrance to one of our hospital buildings. As stated previously, the organisation introduced several different strategies to reduce smoking within our hospital grounds. We have made some inroads, but there is still some way to go. We expect our staff to follow the organisations guidelines and policies and to be role models for health promotion. It is not acceptable for anyone to be smoking in the grounds of our hospitals, but especially not a staff member. Please be reassured that this will be raised with the staff from the area involved and dealt with accordingly. Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention.

Regards

Alison Millar,

Acting Lead Nurse, Lightburn & Stobhill Hospitals

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Update posted by hotandbothered (the patient)

Thanks very much Alison, I appreciate how difficult this role is, particularly at the weekend when senior management tends not to be onsite.

It is a bad example to set for patients and relatives when staff are ignoring the policies.

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