Health board faces ‘difficult balancing act’

Fife and Tayside’s health boards have insisted they are doing what they can to stamp out the problem although they remain relatively toothless when it comes to enforcement.

NHS Fife’s director of public health, Dr Margaret Hannah, said its position was clear – smoking should not be permitted at any time for staff, patients, visitors, contractors or the general public within its premises or grounds.

“Our smoke-free sites initiative, ‘a place to be smoke-free’, was launched in 2015 and has helped reduce the number of smokers on site,” she said.

“We know that there is a better awareness about our policies as a result of this initiative, with a survey carried out earlier this year finding that 69% of people asked were fully aware that NHS Fife operates a smoke-free policy, compared with only 42% in 2014.

“Very often those smoking are patients, for whom our first duty must be to provide the highest possible standard of care.

“It can, therefore, be a difficult balancing act between immediate duty of care and our longer term aims of promoting smoke-free hospital sites.

“To support patients to manage their cravings while in hospital, we offer nicotine replacement and stop smoking aids, which promotes a healthier lifestyle while also serves to reduce the numbers of those smoking on healthcare sites.

“The board continues to be proactive in raising awareness of our non-smoking message, although we do recognise that some people still continue to smoke on our sites.

“We acknowledge this is frustrating for many visitors and patients, and are working hard to change attitudes and reinforce the message that smoking in hospital grounds is unacceptable.

“Such a cultural change cannot be achieved overnight.”

Andrew Radley, a consultant in public health pharmacy at NHS Tayside, said the health board operates a strict no smoking policy.

“We ask staff, patients and visitors to respect our policy by not smoking on NHS Tayside premises or grounds,” he said.

“In NHS Tayside there are several measures in place to ensure our existing ban is followed which includes the use of clear signage around all sites informing patients, visitors and staff that NHS Tayside grounds are smoke-free areas and a pre-recorded loud speaker message is played at Ninewells to reinforce this.

“As a health promoting organisation, NHS Tayside takes breach of the policy very seriously and regularly communicates reminders of the smoking ban to patients, staff and visitors through both internal and external communications.”