Reducing Of Smokers In Wales

A national plan to reduce the number of smokers in Wales to 16% by 2020 for a safer, smoke-free country was launched today by the Welsh Government (19 September). Tobacco contributes most to the overall disease burden in Wales, causing about 5,450 deaths each year and costing the GSP an additional £ 302 m per year.

In Wales 2016/17 the National Survey showed 19% of adults were smokers, a substantial drop from 25% in 2005/6. This exceeded the Government of Welsh’s objective to reduce smoking rates by 20% by 2016.

The latest three-year Tobacco Control Action Plan draws on the changes created after the first ten years of the Wales smoking ban. The steps in the new plan include, by summer 2019, implementing a legislative prohibition on the use of outpatient cessation facilities for smoking in clinics, schools, public children’s playgrounds, and environmental care; enabling more smokers to quit by promoting the use of advanced smokers ‘ cessation programs;

According to Wales ‘ National Survey, the majority of smokers in Wales (approximately 6 out of 10) want to quit, and just over 4 out of 10 have tried to stop in 2014. Many of these people go ‘free,’ but this is the least effective way to leave. To further reduce adult smoking in Wales, it is necessary to encourage more to stop and utilize existing cessation services.

Frank Atherton, Wales ‘ Chief Medical Officer, commented: ‘Reduce the rate of smoking in Wales not only will improve the health of the nation but will also relieve the burden on the NHS.

‘This action strategy was established by the research that we undertook in the Strategic Board and its subgroups to deter, discourage and minimize smoke exposure. We trust that the detailed actions will help us achieve the goal by 2020 of cutting the number of smokers to 16%.” is what is stated on the site, said by Frank Atherton(Chief medical officer).

This photo was taken in Cyfarthfa High School in Merthyr Tydfil, it shows year 8 pupils holding up a poster that they have created themselves on the topic of smoking, trying to prevent smoking outside their hospitals. This indicates how the young students are influenced easily at their age and if you teach them the harms and consequences of smoking before they start they will realize the damage it can cause and this will stop them from smoking in the future.

By getting students at a young age to learn about a serious issue, getting them to create posters or leaflets is very beneficial as they show what they have learned creatively and imaginatively. ‘We saw a number of the visitors smoking next to no indicators of smoke,’ Kelly-Anne Crane, their instructor, said.

Over the last six years, in Llantrisant, 783 cigarette smokers have been told to stub it by security guards at Prince Charles and Royal Glamorgan hospitals alone.

The Cwm Taf University Health Board–which runs locations–claims that they do all they can, except for those who have ‘total ignorance’ to their NHS-filled messages.

They’re not alone, and not alone. Whilst all seven Wales health agencies are committed to smoke-free measures, they claim they are’ powerless’ to prevent people from lighting up, as the regulation does not enforce them yet, which ensures that smokers have no rules.

The public health bill for Wales, which is now entering the Assembly for the second time, will make smoking on hospital grounds unlawful and provide the Board with the necessary legal protection to punish the smokers who flaunt the law.

The government of Welsh said that the legislation ‘constructs current voluntary smoking bans to help the implementation.’

The University Board of Health of Betsi Cadwaladr-the superintendent of hospitals in North Wales-has reported that the public does not ‘value’ smoking on their platform.

They said they had to rely on ‘courtesy and care’ to not learn without laws protecting them, and despite extensive signs and recorded messages that caused a cigarette in their immediate vicinity, citizens nevertheless disregarded their policies. One representative said: ‘We are urging staff members to battle against tobacco, but this can lead to a negative or violent response which makes busy people understandably hesitant to proceed to request that people are putting out their cigarettes or steer away from entrances.’. Smoke streaming into wardrobes, passive smoking, and impressiveness of the increasing amount of young people on site are a matter of concern to the health boards.

Cwm Taf also believes children’s voices will make others think about smoking outside their residences.

Kids of the local schools such as Cyfarthfa High created special posters that described the dangers associated with smoking.

If failure to produce the signs, the board envisions bringing out push-button tannoys, which workers, patients, and guests will trigger by finding someone who is defying the laws, to warn smokers to stub it with children’s voices.

‘Hospitals are designed to help drug and cigarette patients become better,’ says Dr. Chris Jones, Cwm Taf Chairman. ‘I don’t believe a health board is doing it.

‘They give support and advice: it’s not a matter of understanding that giving up is hard, but the reality is that adults respond to youngsters.’ The University of Hywel Dda Health Board has a push-button on its doorways but said certain citizens did not stop it.

One spokesperson says ‘Everybody has the right to aire freshly, particularly while they attend health facilities, and we regularly receive a petition about people who smoke on our site’We recognize that trips to hospitals can be stressful at times, but we encourage smokers to follow our smoke-free policy.

Outside the University Hospital of Wales and the University Hospital Llandough, the Cardiff enforcement officers questioned 6,708 cigarettes in two years.

Trina Nealon, the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board’s main health promotion expert, has said hundreds of people have been contacted each month.

The board said it is mindful that workers find that it is an unwelcome experience for clients and patients who have a difficult situation, even though there were no reported cases for verbal or physical harassment by employees who confront smokers.

Ms. Nealon said that nurses have been helped in trying to quit smoking on arrival. ‘We don’t take anything away from anybody.’

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has reported that although smoking in their hospitals has decreased significantly, deceptively certain individuals will still smoke given all the communications. Powys was the only health committee who said they had no trouble smoking-‘ maybe because they only have community hospitals.