WRH smoke free zone

Nypd · 22-02-2012 10:20AM #1

Just listening to the news and it has been announced that the WRH is a smoke free zone from today.
Smoking is no longer permitted on the grounds anywere.
My question, is this going too far and are the advantages of implementing this.
You often see patients hobbling down to the entrance for a smoke or attached to an iv enjoying a ciggie.

Are these patients now expected to leave the grounds of the hospital and what about the staff.

CardBordWindow · 22-02-2012 10:22AM

How are they going to enforce this?
Will they add a fine onto patients bills if they go for a smoke?

Nypd · 22-02-2012 10:25AM

CardBordWindow wrote: »

How are they going to enforce this?
Will they add a fine onto patients bills if they go for a smoke?

That was another thought that I had also

CardBordWindow · 22-02-2012 10:31AM

It seems like a radical step if you ask me. It's a massive public hospital, with lots of people using it daily, not to mind working there. It's not like a small pub, where you can hunt people out the door easily.
Unless they're gonna start selling Nicorette gum and inhalers in the shop....with a massive mark-up.

batm!ke · 22-02-2012 10:43AM

Doesn't seem workable. No harm moving people away from the front door and give smokers a better sheltered area somewhere else but to push it out completely won't work I would think.

merlante · 22-02-2012 10:50AM

Always thought it was disgusting all the sick people smoking in the doorway. Jesus, you'd feel ill just walking past them. I think it's fair enough. Hospitals are about health, and for every person that gets their fix, there's probably a few other people put out by it. People are just too nice to say.

CardBordWindow · 22-02-2012 10:51AM

merlante wrote: »

Always thought it was disgusting all the sick people smoking in the doorway. Jesus, you'd feel ill just walking past them. I think it's fair enough. Hospitals are about health, and for every person that gets their fix, there's probably a few other people put out by it. People are just too nice to say.

I agree with you regarding walking in through a wall of smoke before you get to the doors, but like batm!ke says, if there was adequate shelters away from the doors, it would cut out this issue. A complete ban is a bit extreme.

Max Powers · 22-02-2012 11:04AM

CardBordWindow wrote: »

I agree with you regarding walking in through a wall of smoke before you get to the doors, but like batm!ke says, if there was adequate shelters away from the doors, it would cut out this issue. A complete ban is a bit extreme.

Hard to see how it will be enforced but i think patients are allowed smoke somewhere, for all other smokers...sod them, they can get in their cars or walk to road

CardBordWindow · 22-02-2012 11:07AM

Max Powers wrote: »

Hard to see how it will be enforced but i think patients are allowed smoke somewhere, for all other smokers...sod them, they can get in their cars or walk to road

If patients can smoke somewhere, fair enough. But even at that, not every patient wears a gown, so it'll be difficult to enforce too so that visitors can't join them too.

giles lynchwood · 22-02-2012 11:11AM

The ban was brought about by WRH status as a regional cancer care center which make's perfect sense and show's respect for cancer treatment patient's attending the center.

www.waterford-news.ie/news/mhgbqlauau

looksee · 22-02-2012 11:37AM

I am totally anti-smoking and I agree with the thinking behind the ban, but its going to be difficult for patients, who already have plenty to worry about, to cope.

On the other hand patients who have no mobility have been cut off from their cigarettes ever since the 'inside' smoking rules were introduced, its not really all that different.

Nypd · 22-02-2012 11:49AM

giles lynchwood wrote: »

The ban was brought about by WRH status as a regional cancer care center which make's perfect sense and show's respect for cancer treatment patient's attending the center.

www.waterford-news.ie/news/mhgbqlauau

Which is fair enough, but why go to the extremes of banning smoking from the whole site.
All it will do is move the problem to a more visable area, the main gates !
Now people passing the hospital will see smokers, could they have not been more proactive with the decision making and moved smoking to a designated low visability area.
At least if someone was smoking outside the main entrance they could be directed to the designated area instead of being told to feck outside the gates.
It certainly would have made it easier to police.

wellboytoo · 22-02-2012 12:24PM

In the couple of other hospitals around the country that it has been enforced
in, they painted a blue line around the bondaries of the Hospital and there is No smoking for anyone within that area.
WRH are enforcing it the same way, and about time as far as I am concerned its a bleeding hospital, no smoking, anyone, staff , sick people, ffs some of you want to let patients smoke!!!! do you not see the contradiction in this?

Bards · 22-02-2012 12:37PM

Airports & Aircraft are smoke free, and people have no complaints about not being allowed to smoke Therefore the same should apply to the Grounds of Hospitals, as this is where people come to get better.

They (the smokers) need to show respect for themselves and others - I welcome this ban as it makes me sick to have to pass a cloud of smoke every time I go to see someone in the hospital.

giles lynchwood · 22-02-2012 12:43PM

It would be great if people using the hospital respected this decision and abide by it so that it does not need to be enforced as stated in other post's it is a hospital after all.

angelfalling · 22-02-2012 03:41PM

Oh no... people who are sick in a hospital have no where to go for a smoke... neither can doctors and nurses......................

It's a hospital. You have to wait until you are either off work or healthy to have a smoke. Boo hoo.

AdMMM · 22-02-2012 03:44PM

Wish they'd ban it city wide to be honest. One can always dream...

ziedth · 22-02-2012 04:04PM

I'm neither pro or anti smoking but I think it's a terrible idea. Granted I'd be all for not having it at the front door but I can only see a complete ban leading to problems. What are they going to do? Physically force someone to the ground to stop them having a fag on the way to the car park i'd be interested to see does it work out.

alibab · 22-02-2012 04:28PM

If you work there then if caught smoking it will be disciplinary action as in written and verbal warnings . I am a non smoker so doesn't effect me but i do know a lot of people are upset by it . Dont know if i agree with it or not yet

Nypd · 22-02-2012 06:07PM

Drove past earlier and a group of elderly enough ladies were huddled together smoking at the front gates.

mathepac · 22-02-2012 07:07PM

Smokers must rate as one of the most selfish groups in society.

I recently visited the Coombe Hospital Dublin where my sister-in-law gave birth to her first child. Every time I visited there was a queue of smokers lined up on either side of the ramp leading to the main entrance, a lot of them in HSE uniforms, puffing away and dropping butts on the ground in close proximity to the huge "No Smoking Area" sign.

Kitchen / cleaning staff (complete with rubber-gloves !!) puffing away outside open kitchen doors and dumping butts on the ground was another not-so-pretty sight.

My niece and her mother had to wait on the smoke-polluted entrance ramp while my brother got the car to ferry them home.

It's time to call and end to this filthy practice on hospital grounds and make smokers pay for cleaning up the mess they create UHG, WRH well done. Where next?

eeloe · 22-02-2012 07:31PM

As a fresh "non smoker" i think it's a great idea....

As was mentioned previously, airports and aircraft are smoke free, and not many people kick up a fuss about that, so having a hospital being smoke free is a great step.

Cabaal · 22-02-2012 08:01PM

CardBordWindow wrote: »

How are they going to enforce this?

Don't worry they will,
People used to say the same thing about the smoking ban years ago when it first came in.....how can they enforce it/sure that won't work I'll just smoke in the bar if I want to and other such nonsense. Again don't worry they will.

A hospital is a place for sick people, its insane that some people think its ok to smoke on its grounds considering the insane amount of money it costs the health service each year and also the amount of damage it does to those that smoke and people who inhale the smoke around them.

snuggles09 · 22-02-2012 08:42PM

I was down in Cork University Hospital last week and it's already in force down there..the grounds are vast with lots of buildings and there are signs everywhere, I didn't see one cigarette butt of one person smoking ( i was keeping an eye out as i'm a smoker myself )

robtri · 22-02-2012 09:15PM

Cabaal wrote: »

A hospital is a place for sick people, its insane that some people think its ok to smoke on its grounds considering the insane amount of money it costs the health service each year and also the amount of damage it does to those that smoke and people who inhale the smoke around them.

the insane smoking costs the HSE every year.....
where u getting that from??

the HSe estimate that tobacco related illness account for 15% of their healtcosts... they spend just over 14billion a year... so just less than 1 billion is spent in healthcare costs for tobacco....

according to the revenue, the government take in over a billion a year from tobacco......

but in saying that .. i am delighted to hear that the WRH is now smoke free ...

200motels · 23-02-2012 01:36AM

They won't be able to enforce it as it's not a law. And all the non smokers out there get off your high horses and stop telling people who enjoy smoking what to do, they are after all a legal product and highly addictive.

mathepac · 23-02-2012 02:09AM

200motels wrote: »

... And all the non smokers out there get off your high horses and stop telling people who enjoy smoking what to do, they are after all a legal product and highly addictive.

I have no problems what substances people consume as long as they don't create consequences for my family and I.

I don't want people stinking of tobacco smoke around me in hospitals, maternity hospitals in particular. I don't want people indulging themselves in their addictions in inappropriate places or where where such indulgence is banned.

I don't want to have the detritus of their indulgence littering the places I walk around or live in. I don't want staff paid out of the public purse as I saw in the Coombe hospital taking cigarette breaks while the smoke blows back into the hospital kitchens and the butts get tossed on the ground. It takes eight years for the cellulose combination in a cigarette filter to break down. The paper and tobacco bio-degrade fairly quickly but that's still not an excuse to throw them around willy-nilly. Smokers, tidy up your act.

So I will not as you so rudely put it be getting off my high-horse anytime soon, not until there are massive changes in smokers' selfish, self-centered behaviours.

Nypd · 23-02-2012 10:30AM

mathepac wrote: »

I have no problems what substances people consume as long as they don't create consequences for my family and I.

I don't want people stinking of tobacco smoke around me in hospitals, maternity hospitals in particular. I don't want people indulging themselves in their addictions in inappropriate places or where where such indulgence is banned.

I don't want to have the detritus of their indulgence littering the places I walk around or live in. I don't want staff paid out of the public purse as I saw in the Coombe hospital taking cigarette breaks while the smoke blows back into the hospital kitchens and the butts get tossed on the ground. It takes eight years for the cellulose combination in a cigarette filter to break down. The paper and tobacco bio-degrade fairly quickly but that's still not an excuse to throw them around willy-nilly. Smokers, tidy up your act.

So I will not as you so rudely put it be getting off my high-horse anytime soon, not until there are massive changes in smokers' selfish, self-centered behaviours.

It was only a matter of time before this debate attracted posts like this.
Which brings me back to one of my original points,
Why didn't the HSE deal with this problem before and move and contain it.
In fact city wide there is little facilities to deal with fag butts,
people smoke they have done for years and will continue to do so for many years to come, the ciggerete companies have seen to that.

It's very easy to throw words like indulgence and addiction around when I'm sure a percentage of smokers would love to quit, and have tried and failed, I know I for one have.

angelfalling · 23-02-2012 11:50AM

ziedth wrote: »

What are they going to do? Physically force someone to the ground to stop them having a fag on the way to the car park

No, fine them.

calerbass · 23-02-2012 12:01PM

Nypd wrote: »

Just listening to the news and it has been announced that the WRH is a smoke free zone from today.
Smoking is no longer permitted on the grounds anywere.
My question, is this going too far and are the advantages of implementing this.
You often see patients hobbling down to the entrance for a smoke or attached to an iv enjoying a ciggie.

Are these patients now expected to leave the grounds of the hospital and what about the staff.

Hi there, I think i should put the record straight with WRH and its new smoking ban.

First of all, i laughed and laughed when i heard of this new ban.

The reasons being is that i worked in WRH for over ten years, and was involved in the introduction of the smoking ban etc.

Now...........when the smoking ban became law, the management and the environmental officers based on the Cork road, whose job it was to follow up on complaints, were shown and identified culprits that were smoking inside the building, told me that their will never be anyone prosecuted for smoking in WRH because and i quote " we will be only prosecuting our own, that being the manager of the hospital - <snip>" so their you go...........remember they are investigating their selves, those environmental officers are all ex nurses.
So they will never be anyone prosecuted in WRH for smoking and the only people that will be tortured will be the security staff, chasing people and getting hassle for it, when the crowd on the cork road are supposed to be doing it. I would only hope that the security staff kick up over this, because the people meant to do the job wont be doing it.

Further to that, if anyone wants to do an FOI, their has been nobody ever been prosecuted in Ireland for smoking in a hospital, it really was a law to screw the pubs.

Im all for no-smoking, but they are'nt half making fools of people.

They would make you sick.

calerbass · 23-02-2012 12:19PM

alibab wrote: »

If you work there then if caught smoking it will be disciplinary action as in written and verbal warnings . I am a non smoker so doesn't effect me but i do know a lot of people are upset by it . Dont know if i agree with it or not yet

Hi, disciplinary action cant happen, because im sure no smoking would have to be written into their contracts etc, and its the manager/owner of the building who is prosecuted not the smoker.

WRH smoke free zone

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