Welcome to SMOKEFREE Te Whatu Ora Whanganui

Te Whatu Ora Whanganui is committed to promoting good health and maintaining a healthy environment for our patients, staff and visitors. This is why all our buildings, cars and grounds are smokefree.

For those who do smoke, this means you cannot smoke anywhere on site – inside or out. While this can be a challenge, it also provides an opportunity to tap into the expertise of our health staff who are able to help you stop smoking.

For those who don’t want to stop, our staff can support you to manage being smokefree while you are staying with us.

If you still choose to smoke, we ask that you walk to the end of the drive and smoke outside the hospital grounds. This is so that we don’t harm the health of other patients, staff, children and visitors with passive smoke.

Being smokefree during your stay allows any wounds heal more effectively. Tobacco smoke reduces blood flow, so being smokefree helps for a quicker recovery. Staying smokefree when you leave hospital is one of the best things you could do for your own general health and wellbeing.

How will I cope being smokefree in hospital?

 If you smoke regularly, your body gets used to a steady supply of nicotine. When you stop smoking, it is the withdrawal from nicotine that causes discomfort. To help you remain smokefree and be comfortable during your stay, staff can provide nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) – for example, patches, lozenges and gum – which replace the nicotine supply to your body. Nicotine is safe for most people to use. It is the 4,000 poisons in tobacco and tobacco smoke that cause harm.

NRT is used as a safe alternative to smoking to help keep you comfortable. It can reduce the severity of some of the symptoms that people experience when they can't smoke such as cravings, irritability and restlessness.

We know that most people who smoke want to quit and that it can be a hard journey for many. Talking to your doctor or nurse about your smoking is a great first step.​

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