Smoking cessation expert visits MidCentral Health
11 April 2014
MidCentral Health welcomed Ministry of Health smoking cessation expert Dr Hayden McRobbie to Palmerston North Hospital
today. His day was spent with various departments; discussing how MidCentral Health’s already implemented smoking
cessation plans could be enhanced.
During his visit, Dr McRobbie met with the Smoking Cessation Taskforce, and toured the hospital, visiting the wards to
answer any questions they had. Smoking cessation in mental health was the other focus of his time here, as being
smokefree in that area is a more complicated issue than in the general wards.
Being smokefree in mental health is a certification requirement as well as aligning with our Smokefree Policy. This
visit will provide new ideas on how to implement this, while keeping the best interests of the patients and staff in
mind. A committed and focused working group is working toward this goal in the hospital’s acute in-patient mental health
unit. Preparations are well underway; with information programs and tool-kits being developed to assist both staff and
consumers with the unit becoming smoke free.
MidCentral Health Director for Patient Safety and Clinical Effectiveness Muriel Hancock was pleased to welcome someone
with Dr McRobbie’s expertise to the hospital.
“At MidCentral Health we are doing everything we can to have a smokefree environment and to increase our efforts with
regard to the smoking cessation national target that benefits both staff and patients. Receiving advice from someone as
knowledgeable on the subject as Dr McRobbie is a great boost for our efforts.”
MidCentral Health is committed to a smokefree environment and to ensuring that the smoking cessation target is achieved
in all services with continuing efforts to help patients and staff quit. In the Emergency Department, triage nurses are
asking patients if they smoke, and if they wish to receive advice on how to quit. In addition, Nicotine Replacement
Therapy (NRT) is being offered to those in the waiting room to help them stop smoking while on hospital grounds, and
hopefully when they return home.
Staff, and most patients, are already required to be offsite if they wish to smoke, and support is available for them if
they wish to quit. As part of this effort, all staff have been issued with cards about how to address the ‘elephant in
the room’, providing a three step ABC process of Asking, giving Brief advice, and providing Cessation support.
Ends