An NHS Trust which runs mental health services will introduce a smoking ban across all its sites next month.
The South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust says the ban is being brought in as ‘our job is to support and protect people’s health and wellbeing’.
The specialist Trust provides community, mental health and learning disability services, and has a number of sites in Kirklees and Calderdale, including Folly Hall, in St Thomas Road, Huddersfield, and the Priestley Unit, at the Dewsbury and District Hospital.
The main hospital site at Dewsbury is run by the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and is not affected by the ban.
SWYFT says it is working closely with other NHS trusts in places where its buildings are based on their grounds.
Medical director Dr Adrian Berry said: “Our decision to go smoke free supports our aim of protecting people’s health and wellbeing and our duty to help people live well and protect them from harm while they are with us.
“Working in partnership with staff, service users and carers, we have put support in place to ensure that people who do smoke will be comfortable in a smoke free environment.
“All of the buildings and grounds which are managed by our Trust will be smoke free. We are also working closely with other local NHS Trusts in places where our buildings are based on their grounds.
“At Dewsbury and District Hospital, wards 18 and 19 which are run by the Trust, will be smoke free and our staff will support service users, colleagues and members of the public to positively embrace the smoke free culture.”
A spokeswoman said people could leave the SWYFT unit and walk across into the hospital site controlled by the Mid Yorkshire Trust if they wanted.
“If they are able to come and go, that would be up to them, but the no smoking policy will apply to all our buildings and grounds.”
The smoking ban means that no one, including staff, visitors and people in inpatient units, will be able to smoke.
The Trust says detailed plans to support the creation of a smoke free environment are being drawn up, with help from staff from inpatient areas, service users and carers.
Anyone who doesn’t want to stop smoking will be provided with nicotine replacement therapy and psychological support to manage nicotine withdrawal symptoms.
Anyone wanting to stop will be offered the nicotine replacement therapy, and help from stop smoking advisors at Yorkshire Smokefree.
A number of hospitals in England and all hospitals in Scotland are bringing in a blanket ban on smoking in the grounds.
But the pro-smoking group Forest has branded the move ‘inhumane’, saying going to hospital as a patient or visitor can often be a very stressful experience, and saying it is pettier than banning smoking in pubs, where people can still go outside.
