Gwent set for smoking ban on hospital grounds

PATIENTS in Gwent hospitals who want to smoke will be asked to leave the grounds, at their own risk, under tough new rules drawnup by health bosses.

By March 14 next year – No Smoking Day – Aneurin Bevan Health Board wants all hospital sites to be ‘smoke free’.

Currently, smoking is banned inside hospitals, in line with the Wales-wide ban introduced in 2007.

But under the health board’s new smoke-free policy, smokers’ shelters will be removed or where appropriate, could be converted, for instance into bikesheds.

Policy details are being finalised, but it proposes that patients wanting to smoke must leave hospital grounds, at their own risk. Patients who are smoking on-site will be asked to stop or leave the grounds, but told that if they do leave, it will be at their own risk, and staff will not assist them.

The ban covers anyone having any business on hospital sites, including distressed relatives or patients’ friends.

Staff will only be allowed to leave to smoke at designated break times.

Patients receiving care and treatment from health board staff in their own homes will be asked not to smoke during visits, but if this does not happen, an alternative venue might be arranged if this is considered a practical option.

Information on the smokefree policy will be included in pre-admission letters, leaflets, posters, and on signs.

The health board is also strengthening its arrangements for offering patients support to stop smoking, such as referral to the Stop Smoking Wales programme.

All hospital grounds should be smoke-free by January 1, 2012, with the exception of the Royal Gwent, St Woolos, and Nevill Hall Hospitals, but the aim is to include this trio by March 14.

The Royal Gwent site in particular, due to its size and the busy nature of its surrounding road network, has proved a major challenge for policy planners.