The Wellington Health Care Alliance (WHCA) announced last week county hospitals will tighten smoking restrictions.
Effective Jan. 1, Palmerston and District Hospital and Louise Marshall Hospital in Mount Forest will become smokeless environments, while Groves Memorial Community Hospital in Fergus will be completely smoke-free.
“This move … confirms for the community and our staff our aim to support good health practices including reducing the exposure to smoke at or near the hospitals,” said WHCA president and CEO Jerome Quenneville.
Currently, smoking is allowed externally on all sites as long as it takes place at least nine meters from entrances. The new change means smoking will not be permitted anywhere on Groves Hospital property, including parking lots or vehicles.
Smoking will be permitted only within a single outdoor designated area at each of the Palmerston and District and Louise Marshall sites.
Quenneville said in an interview the new policy takes the regulations “a little farther” than the county’s recently passed bylaw against smoking.
He said there is not a large number of smokers at Groves, but when people congregate for a puff near the emergency doors, smoke can make its way into the building. And when people are sick, they do not need the added aggravation of smoke, he added.
Quenneville concluded that the new smoking restrictions support the health care mandate of hospitals.
