All our hospital sites are now smoke free
Cleaner air for all our patients, visitors and colleagues
Our hospital trust is now smoke free – that means no smoking on any of our grounds, including entrances, car parks, and outdoor areas. This applies to our patients, our staff, our visitors and contractors.
Your support makes a difference. Thank you for helping us care for each other and our shared environment.
Support for you to stop smoking
Our Tobacco Addiction Care and Treatment Service Team is available to support you during your hospital stay. Our team is committed to helping patients and their loved ones remain smoke free and we aim to see all smokers, providing guidance and assistance to promote recovery and wellbeing. If you would like to be seen during your hospital stay, please let the team looking after you know.
Our Smoking in Pregnancy Team also offers support to pregnant women and their families throughout their time with us.
"Our aim is to support pregnant women and their families to quit smoking in a supportive and non-judgmental way, and provide a 'smokefree' start in life for their baby..."
Our dedicated teams are also on hand to support staff to quit smoking.
Can I vape?
Considerate vaping is currently allowed on our grounds but please make sure you are at least three metres away from doors and windows and avoid vaping in front of children.
Why is UHD smoke free?
The NHS increasingly cares for people with long-term health conditions, and we must do more to create an environment that supports healthier choices. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death so we need to take proactive steps to prevent the very diseases we frequently treat.
Even if you don't smoke, exposure to smoke increases health risks for vulnerable patients, children, and non-smokers. By making our hospital 100% smoke free, we are protecting everyone's health and offering support to those who want to quit or temporarily abstain.
"We are here to look after your health and we prioritise the wellbeing of our community, our staff, and our environment - providing a smoke free environment and supporting people to quit is a really important part of that..." Siobhan Harrington, CEO
What illnesses can smoking cause?
– A progressive lung disease that causes breathing difficulties. The risk of COPD doubles for smokers over 35.
– Smoking damages blood vessels, increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes, especially after 35.
– Smokers over 35 face a dramatically higher risk of developing lung cancer and other smoking-related cancers.
– Smoking increases the risk of complications, low birth weight, and stillbirth.
Help for visitors
If you are a visitor to UHD and are thinking of quitting smoking, please see the fantastic service free for all in the community offered by Live Well Dorset.
For more information please see our LiveWell Dorset support page.
Patient Safety Incident Response Framework
To improve our approach to responding to patient safety incidents, we have implemented NHS England's Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF).
The video below introduces PSIRF, and you can also visit the NHS England website for more information.
What is PSIRF?
PSIRF sets out how NHS organisations respond to patient safety incidents, and ensures compassionate engagement with the patients affected and their families. It supports the key principles of a patient safety culture, focusing on understanding how incidents happen, rather than apportioning blame - allowing for more effective learning, and ultimately safer care for patients.
What's happening at UHD?
We have developed a Patient Safety Incident Response Plan which will identify our individual patient safety incident profile and review existing improvement work to identify the areas that will benefit most from learning and maximise the opportunities for improvement. You can read the plan, and our PSIRF Policy here:
What does it mean for investigations?
Some incidents will qualify for a Patient Safety Incident Investigation but there will be others where alternative responses, such as case note reviews, open conversations involving the team or after-action reviews will be indicated. In some cases, where it is already clear why the incident happened, it will be more appropriate to concentrate on making improvements rather than spending more time on investigations.
Essentially, there will be fewer formal investigations of incidents, but staff will be more likely to be involved in other approaches to learn from incidents and improve patient safety.
If you have questions or would like to get involved please contact our Patient Safety Team via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Where can I volunteer?
We have a number of roles across our 3 sites (at Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch) with new roles being developed in response to the hospitals' needs.
For applicants under 18 years
Due to safety and safeguarding policies, applicants under the age of 18 are only permitted to volunteer during official hours: Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. We cannot facilitate volunteering outside of those hours; evenings and nights or over the weekend.
