Smoking


Our Trust is smokefree and we support our patients to stay smokefree. All hospital grounds which include all buildings, gardens and car parks are smokefree.  This applies to all patients, staff, visitors and contractors. If you do smoke on the site you can expect to be told to extinguish your cigarette. It is against the law to smoke inside the hospital buildings or under shelters near entrances. 

No Smoking on site

Please be aware that our Trust is a smoke free site, including in its open areas. This is not only for patient, visitor and colleague health, but also because like all hospitals, we work with a range of flammable and explosive materials and gases, including oxygen. Smoking is a major fire and explosion risk for our hospitals and puts all of us in danger, with vulnerable patients being most at risk. Please help to keep us and yourself safe by not smoking on our sites and by not bringing cigarettes and lighters with you.

Patients who are admitted to our hospital will be supported to remain smokefree throughout their admission. They will be asked if they have ever smoked and all smokers will be provided with:

  • Brief advice about stopping smoking
  • Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) to reduce nicotine withdrawal symptoms and cravings
  • A referral to a specialist stop smoking service to get further support to help remain smokefree during your stay and beyond 

There are 121,000 smokers in Nottinghamshire and one person dies every week in the county from a smoking-related illness. We know that stopping smoking is hard but 70% of smokers when asked want to quit and 98% of children wish their parents would give up smoking. The benefits of stopping smoking are almost immediate: quitters will soon see reduced blood pressure, easier breathing and better circulation. This can mean a that current health conditions will improve, aiding recovering and preventing you returning to hospital as well as reducing the risk of future health problems. 

In October 2014 the Board of Directors signed up to the Nottinghamshire Tobacco Control Procedure, which involves having a smokefree site, in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. The image below shows what Public Health England and Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust want to see. 

For some tips on stopping smoking see the NHS choices website. 

If you know you are visiting our hospital sites we ask that you do not smoke onsite. If you are visiting a patient please support them to remain smokefree by not taking them out to smoke and removing any temptation for them to smoke e.g. take their cigarettes and lighter away. Please bear in mind that staff are not able to take patients out to smoke as they cannot leave the ward and have to support the smokefree site. 

If you know you will be staying with us, undergoing a procedure or having an operation we recommend that you stop smoking before your visit where possible. Smokers are 38% more likely to die after surgery than non-smokers (ASH, 2016). You will be asked about your smoking when you have your pre-op and the health professionals in the team can support you to stop smoking and refer you to the local support services. Click here to find out more. 

To maximise the chances of successfully stopping smoking we advise that you have support from a special service and treatment such as NRT. If you sign up to the SmokefreeLife service you can have 6 weeks of free NRT alongside regular support face to face or over the phone. 

E-cigarettes

It is recognised that e-cigarettes are thought to be less harmful than cigarettes but they are not harmless. Therefore use of e-cigarettes is not currently permitted onsite. Current evidence suggests that e-cigarettes can help smokers quit but are no better than other forms of NRT on the market. We therefore recommend that you use NRT to help you stop. While you are staying with us NRT can be made available to you free of charge.

Make a referral to Your Health Your Way Service 

Click here to refer yourself or, with their permission, refer someone else.