Calls to tweak DHB smoking ban policy
Health bosses will examine a proposal to allow patients to smoke within the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre.
Waikato DHB member Dave Macpherson presented the proposal at the health board’s May meeting.
His request is to allow secure outdoor smoking areas within the centre. This which would require a change to the health board’s smoking policy.
Smoking is banned on the hospital campus.
Macpherson said the DHB’s blanket ban on smoking puts the safety of mental heath patients who smoke at risk.
‘‘The smoking policies at this DHB and others are a one-size-fits-all approach to the problem and that’s where my concern arises,’’ Macpherson told board members.
Macpherson cited studies which indicate the level of nicotine dependence increases with the severity of a mental illness.
‘‘When a person has been smoking long-term, which many of the people in the Henry Bennett Centre have, when they have another cigarette, their depressed mood, their agitation and anxiety are relieved, so that’s one of the reasons people crave smokes,’’ he said.
The health board has a responsibility to look after patients in its care, he said. That duty of care is compromised when patients are forced to leave the campus to smoke.
Board member Martin Gallagher supports the health board’s efforts to discourage smoking, but it did have a duty of care to provide a safe environment for patients.
The board agreed to have staff prepare a report on the issue and present it in two to three months.
Macpherson’s son Nicky Stevens was under a compulsory care order at the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre in 2015 when he failed to return from an unsupervised 15-minute smoke break. His body was found three days later in the Waikato River.
Board member Tania Hodges said she was keen for the staff paper to address how the board could become more proactive around smoking cessation.
While smoking provides immediate relief to patients, the long-term evidence shows smoking is harmful to people’s health, she said.
In May, Chelsea Brunton, 21, died while being treated at Palmerston North Hospital’s mental health unit.
She left for a cigarette break but did not return. She was found dead at a residential property four days later.