Smokefree: Your comments and questions

July 31, 2019

Our Trust has now become smokefree, which means no smoking on any of our sites. We support vaping on our grounds, but not in our buildings or entrances.

It is our collective responsibility to ensure that people do not smoke anywhere on our sites, and in this we will be supported by dedicated smoking wardens who will be patrolling our sites, and by an external company who will police our ban through an on the ground presence backed up by CCTV. The maximum ban for anyone caught smoking on site is £50, and this includes smoking in cars on our premises. Colleagues who receive three fines will be subject to disciplinary procedure.

Vaping will be allowed outside, and as the smoking shelters come down we will retain a small number which will be converted into vaping shelters. These shelters will be monitored by CCTV to ensure they are not used for smoking.

We are following Public Health England guidelines in being supportive of vaping as a route to cut down or quit smoking.

Two vaping shops are now open at City (main spine, ground floor) and Sandwell (outpatients area) Hospitals run by ECigWizard, where colleagues will be able to get advice about vaping products and purchase them. We are also making Nicotine Replacement Therapy widely available, so patients will be able to access it through clinical colleagues on our wards and from our pharmacy department.

Be sure to check out this video featuring our Chief Executive, Toby Lewis addressing some of the topics and questions raised as we move forward with our smoking ban.