Summer push to help D&G stop smoking

A CAMPAIGN is being rolled out to encourage people to quit smoking for good this summer.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway will push to help patients and staff stub out the habit.

Advice and support to stop smoking is available online and by phone through Dumfries and Galloway’s Quit Your Way service, which offers free support and access to stop smoking medications.

Community pharmacies can also help and support to stop smoking is available for people who are admitted to hospital.

Director of public health Valerie White says: “Smoking and tobacco use is the largest preventable cause of ill health and early death in Scotland. Every day in Dumfries and Galloway we treat people for serious, and life-limiting, illnesses linked to smoking.”

“Help and support is available for everyone in our community. Whether you are a member of staff, a patient, a visitor or a service user, support to stop smoking is there for you.”

Meanwhile, the summer will also see a new emphasis on enforcing existing no-smoking policies.

All NHS Dumfries and Galloway buildings, vehicles, and grounds are already smoke-free – including vaping.

But during the week of June 8 there will be enforcement of the smoke-free policy at DGRI, Galloway Community Hospital, Midpark and Mountainhall by NHS staff and environmental health officers. They will be offering guidance, advice and help to anyone wishing to stop smoking, but there will also be the option of £50 fixed-penalty fines to anyone who continues to smoke in areas where smoking is prohibited.

Ms White added: “We recognise that stopping smoking can be difficult, and our focus is on being supportive and respectful.

“But the smoke-free environment is important for the health of our patients, our staff, and our visitors, and we have a duty to protect and maintain it.”

n Advice on stopping smoking is available online from NHS Inform at nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/how-to-stop-smoking, or from Dumfries and Galloway Quit Your Way on 01556 505 713.