"Smoking"

Thank you for your comments regarding smoking when you visited Musgrove Park recently. We are sorry that you experienced this and thank you for letting us know about it. Musgrove Park Hospital is an entirely Smokefree site, meaning that smoking is not permitted anywhere on our grounds. We are absolutely committed to this and to protecting our patients, visitors, volunteers and colleagues against the harmful effects of smoking and passive smoking. We are aware however, that unfortunately, despite initiatives and campaigns encouraging people not to smoke here it is still happening. Enforcing our Smokefree Policy can be challenging, as there is no official law to support us. Despite this, we do actively reinforce the message and encourage people on our site to do the same. One of the most recent, innovative ways we are trying to tackle smoking on our site is through a Smokefree personal announcement (PA) system. This features personalised (to the hospital area) Smokefree messages that we worked with local children, teenagers and adults to create. Generic ‘Musgrove is a Smokefree site’ messages are also included. The blue ‘Smokefree’ push buttons that activate the messages are accessible to all – colleagues, patients, volunteers and visitors, and are soon to be located on the inside of all main entrances to our hospital, with some already in place. Anyone who sees someone smoking near the entrances can simply and discretely push the Smokefree blue push button, located on the inside of the entrance, to activate a Smokefree message announcement that the smoker. We first piloted the Smokefree push button approach within our maternity department last September, and found it to be very successful in reducing smoking on our site in that particular area. We are encouraging people to look out for the blue Smokefree buttons at Musgrove and to use them when they see someone smoking nearby. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to telephone our PALS officers on 01823 343536. Lucille Hoose, PALS & Complaints Lead