A West Midlands healthcare Trust has today (5 July) become a smokefree organisation – banning smoking in any outdoor areas and cars parked on site.
At the same time the Trust has endorsed the position of Public Health England in promoting vaping as an alternative and a route to quitting smoking.
The move at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, is part of the Trust’s Joint Public Health Plan developed with Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council. The organisation, which runs Sandwell, City and Rowley Regis Hospitals, as well as Leasowes Intermediate Centre, made the pledge to go smokefree exactly one year ago, on the 70th birthday of the NHS.
Anyone ignoring the ban and lighting up on site will receive a £50 fine. Patients will be offered NRT products as alternatives if appropriate. Two vaping shops are now open, run by eCigWizard, with one based at City and the other at Sandwell Hospital.
Smoking enforcement officers will patrol the site from 5 July, and work alongside staff, including security staff, to challenge people smoking on site. Cameras to support the policy are in place. There has been overwhelming support for the ban within the organisation and across the local community.
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