Mater Dei Hospital is gradually making the necessary changes towards becoming a smoke-free hospital, with the 39 smoking zones available when it opened now down to six.

The process, which started soon after the hospital was inaugurated, is being carried out in conjunction with smoke cessation classes held within the hospital to help staff quit smoking.

It is estimated that around a quarter of hospital staff smoke, so the Health Promotion Department started offering the cessation classes at the workplace, department head Charmaine Gauci said.

The initiative started three years ago with the setting up of a Health Committee which took on the transition process.

The six smoking areas will gradually be reduced until the only smoking areas available will be just outside the hospital precincts, she said.

Ideally, smoking zones do not need to be created because people would have kicked the habit, but there will always be those who do not manage to quit and therefore somewhere to smoke, she said.

Internal courtyards at the hospital have to date doubled as smoking zones. Dr Gauci said the committee, chaired by Prof. Stephen Montfort, was not set up specifically to reduce smoking at hospital but to implement measures, through awareness and enforcement, of the effects of tobacco on people who smoke and, more importantly, on those who do not.

She said cessation classes were held regularly and were also offered at the workplace for companies that wish to offer the opportunity for their employees to kick the habit during working hours.

A company recently engaged the Health Promotion Department to offer its employees weight control classes as well as tuition on their smoking habits.

Those interested should contact the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate on 2326 6000.