SMOKING OUTSIDE HOSPITALS could soon be a thing of the past.
Nearly 50 per cent of HSE facilities and hospitals are now smoke free campuses.
We’re not just talking about no smoking inside, which is a given, but no smoking on the entire grounds of hospitals. So doorways, walkways, car parks, etc, will all be smoke-free.
Mallow General Hospital, Bantry General Hospital and Kerry General Hospital are the latest on the list, the HSE confirmed to TheJournal.ie today. They plan to be declared smoke free zones from 6 January 2014.
But to the real question, does it work?
Cork University Hospital have had the smoke-free policy for the past three years now, since May 2010, but some people continue to smoke outside the main entrance.
A recorded message is played out over loudspeakers reminding people that smoking is banned on the campus.
A TheJournal.ie investigation in October of last year found that smoking was still commonplace on the campus of Beaumont Hospital in Dublin despite it being declared a smoke-free site five months previously.
However, that’s not to say the no smoking campus isn’t having an impact.
Since introducing the smoking ban in the hospital, more than 1,100 new clients attended the hospitals free smoking cessation service and there’s been a 46 per cent success rate.
Patricia Good, HSE South Smoking Cessation Officer said, “This is well above the expected average.”
A spokesperson for the HSE South Offices also said that “it’s encouraged a lot of staff to give up smoking because they didn’t want to have to walk off hospital grounds for their cigarette break”.
In a report published in May of this year, reviewing the three years of a smoke free campus at Cork University Hospital, it’s stated that:
The HSE is committed to all hospital campuses becoming smoke free by the end of 2015.
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