The CEO of the Huron-Perth Healthcare Alliance says the four alliance hospitals went through the same "no smoking" process a number of years ago that other hospitals in the province are going through now.
Andrew Williams says there was a lot of discussion before their policy of banning smoking anywhere on the property was implemented, and it wasn't easy.
But Williams adds over time it's worked very well and there's no doubt in his mind it was the right thing to do for the hospital and the patients.
"It's a change, obviously, not only for patients and families but our staff, it was the right thing to do to set the tone and we're seeing more and more organizations do that or more municipalities start to address the issue so we feel that we were ahead of the curve and it's been working very, very well," says Williams.
Williams adds the staff don't have time to go out and tell people they can't smoke, so it's more a matter of passively advising them of the policy.
"You do have people that will try and we don't have staff who are specifically going out and running after patients," says Williams. "One of the challenges is people will come in to the site, perhaps be smoking in their car, will have their cigarette still as they come to the door and they'll just put it out there."
Williams says it takes time for such policies to really take effect.
