NHS Lanarkshire launch new smoking ban
HUGH Dallas MBE helped NHS Lanarkshire launch its new No Smoking Policy on Friday 1 August by showing the red card to cigarettes.
Smoking is now banned on all the health board’s premises and grounds – including areas around hospital, health centre and clinic entrances and car parks.
NHS Lanarkshire’s new policy is a key part of its aim to help improve the health of people in Lanarkshire.
And former World Cup referee Hugh revealed he was perfectly placed – as he always was on the football pitch – to comment on the benefits of giving up smoking and the merits of the new ban.
Hugh, who helped launch the new policy at Monklands Hospital in Airdrie, said: “When I was younger smoking was quite a fashionable thing to do and it was a bad habit of mine for many years.
“There’s no way I would have made it to the top of refereeing if I’d continued.
"I was struggling to pass the referee’s fitness tests and I knew fine well why that was.
“I was quite a heavy smoker and although I’d tried to quit before I never quite managed it.”
Hugh, who is now the Scottish Football Referee Development Officer, continued: “In 1991, with the help and advice of friends, I eventually managed to give up smoking and the effects were emphatic.
“From then on every fitness test result was better than the last. There’s no doubt in my mind that this was due to kicking the habit.
“Anyone who stops smoking will soon reap the benefits. I believe the smoking ban on NHS Lanarkshire grounds is a huge step forward to encourage people to give it up.”
NHS Lanarkshire’s Chief Executive Tim Davison believes the new No Smoking Policy will play a key role in improving people’s health.
He said: “Lanarkshire has one of the highest rates of smokers in the country and the effects of smoking are devastating for people’s health.
“It is not an option for a health board to just ignore these facts and permit people to damage their own and others’ health on our own grounds.
“We want to encourage people to give up smoking and to point them in the direction of NHS Lanarkshire’s Stop Smoking Service.
“This revised No Smoking Policy demonstrates the commitment of the NHS Lanarkshire Board to reduce the harm caused by smoking as one of its key initiatives to improve the health of people in Lanarkshire.”
Dr Lesley Armitage, Consultant in Public Health Medicine, is firmly behind the new ban.
She said: “Smoking is the biggest single preventable cause of ill health and early death in Lanarkshire.
“It not only increases the risk of lung cancer, as many people know, but also increases the risk of other much more common diseases such as heart disease, stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which effects the lungs.
“In many cases patients suffer years of gradually deteriorating health which greatly reduces their quality of life and restricts what they can do.
“This revised No Smoking Policy demonstrates NHS Lanarkshire’s commitment to improving the health of its employees, its patients and members of the public and to reducing the serious health risk posed by smoking."
NHS Lanarkshire’s Stop Smoking Service helps smokers quit through a combination of specialist support and nicotine replacement therapy – which has been shown to be the most effective way to kick the habit.
To find out about stop smoking groups in your area simply call 08452 17 77 07 or text “Advice” to 81066.
You can also visit www.nhslanarkshire.org.uk for more information.
Mental health inpatients will be exempt from the new policy until 1 August 2009 to allow more time to put the necessary arrangements in place.