"COVID - Staff smoking"

Dear mayms89

I would like to apologise to you for your experience of people smoking outside the entrance of University Hospital Wishaw. I can fully appreciate how you would have found this an unpleasant experience. I would however like to reassure you that this is a matter which NHS Lanarkshire takes extremely seriously and it is one we have been continuing to address for a number of years.

To give you some background, NHS Lanarkshire introduced a no smoking policy which banned smoking on all our grounds and vehicles in 2008 and it was updated in 2014 to include e-cigarettes. The policy was implemented in an attempt to build on the good work of the national smoking ban in public places in 2006, protect people from second hand smoke, prevent young people from starting to smoke and offer specialist support for those who want to quit. A considerable effort was made, and is still being made, to inform staff, patients, visitors and the general public about our policy to help improve compliance with it. Some of the steps we have taken to address the matter of smoking on hospital grounds have included:

• Installing updated no smoking signs on all NHS Lanarkshire sites.

• Rolling out a system which ensures that all patients who smoke have their smoking status assessed when they are admitted to hospital to allow these patients to be managed appropriately either for temporary abstinence or total cessation.

• Offering stop smoking support at each of our three acute sites through the NHS Lanarkshire Stop Smoking Service, which offers advice and support in conjunction with free nicotine replacement therapy and Varenicline from trained nurse advisors.

• Brief intervention training for our staff, providing them with the basic knowledge and skills necessary to deliver brief opportunistic advice to smokers and how to refer smokers to stop smoking support services.

• Employing a dedicated stop smoking mental health nurse specialist to provide support to mental health facilities staff and patients by offering support, advice and guidance around stopping smoking.

• Discussions with our local authority partners to identify any additional enforcement activity that can be taken forward by our environmental control staff.

• Public information campaigns to make smokers aware of our policy and encourage them to smoke off our grounds.

• Public and staff awareness campaigns which promote the health risks associated with second hand smoke.

• We have also installed a smoke activated voice pod at the entrance of University Hospital Monklands. This broadcasts a number of stop smoking messages when activated. Our stop smoking service is currently undertaking an evaluation of the pod with a view to determining its effectiveness. If it is found that it does deter or reduce the number of people smoking around the entrance, it would be our intention to install other pods on other sites including University Hospital Wishaw.

While these steps have encouraged many smokers to respect the policy, to our frustration others don’t and persist in smoking on grounds, particularly outside hospital entrances, despite the inconvenience this causes the majority of others. The policy has been difficult to enforce as, unlike the 2006 smoking ban in public places, it is not a statutory requirement by law. While we are well aware that some smokers persist in smoking on our grounds despite our policy, we are confident that the steps we are taking as well as the future legislative change will help us to reduce this over time.

I hope you find this information helpful and that it reassures you that we not only take this matter seriously, but continue to take active steps to address it. I have taken the liberty to share your comments with hospital management.

Best wishes

Lesley