Smoking made acceptable at hospital

The Malta Medical Students' Association (MMSA) would like to bring to light the current smoking policy being adopted at Mater Dei Hospital.

As the only local medical student organisation, MMSA undertakes a lot of work to inform and educate the public on medical issues. A considerable amount of effort is expended on anti-smoking campaigns in particular. As a representative organisation of future doctors, MMSA has the public's health at heart.

Thus it is quite shocking to find that the administration at Mater Dei not only fails to condemn smoking, but in recent weeks seems to be promoting it. Mater Dei should have been a no-smoking hospital from the start, as are other state-of-the-art hospitals abroad.

Smoking should be prohibited on hospital grounds, and in the case of Mater Dei, this should include areas such as the ring road and car parks. After all, our hospitals should be the pinnacle of the efforts made to promote public health.

Ever since the opening of Mater Dei, people could be seen smoking outside every entrance to the hospital, to the extent that not only would entrances reek of smoke, but one would also find cigarette butts littering the surrounding areas. Despite being highly inappropriate, one would close an eye to such practices in the light of efforts to avoid smoking within the hospital proper.

Subsequently, jerry-cans half filled with water appeared in the internal courtyards of the hospital. These makeshift ashtrays presented an unacceptable situation, especially since such areas are opposite the in-patient wards. Staff, relatives and even patients were to be seen puffing away, flying in the face of health warnings meant to stop people being admitted into hospital in the first place.

The way things have developed at Mater Dei makes it seem as though the hospital is now promoting smoking. Over the past couple of weeks, the aforementioned courtyards have been supplied with stand-alone ashtrays. By providing them, one is portraying the picture that smoking is acceptable in that area.

To make matters worse, these courtyards, at the epicentre of the building, have now officially been labelled by hospital administration as Designated Smoking Areas. It is completely unacceptable and inappropriate to see these things in any hospital.

MMSA would thus like to appeal to the relevant authorities to remove the ashtrays, to remove the Designated Smoking Areas and to make Mater Dei and all the hospital grounds a no-smoking zone, enforced by at least a small fraction of the army of on-site security guards.

By doing so, the hospital will once again be able to broadcast its message of public health and return to being a state-of-the-art, smoke-free environment.