Peninsula Health is committed to providing a smoke free environment to all staff, volunteers, patients and visitors.
In an effort to reduce high smoking rates outside of the main entrance at Frankston Hospital, Peninsula Health piloted a broadcasting system that featured various announcements discouraging the use of cigarettes within close proximity of hospital entrances.
This World No Tobacco Day, Wednesday 31 May, the piloted program has returned and expanded to more sites across the health service, with recordings now played outside of Frankston Hospital Emergency Department, Frankston Integrated Health Centre, Frankston Mental Health ‘H’ Building and Rosebud Hospital Main Entrance.
The announcements were made in partnership with grade six students from Frankston Primary school, who participated in a number of workshops facilitated by the Frankston Youth Services team. At these workshops the students developed their own unique smoke-free messages that were then recorded with help from an audio engineer.
The recorded messages were played on the PA system outside the main entrance to Frankston Hospital in October and November, 2019, at different intervals. Throughout the course of the study, CCTV footage was analysed and results showed a significant reduction in the number of people smoking outside the hospital when the announcements were played.
There were 4.4 cigarettes smoked per hour during non-broadcast periods, falling to 3.6 an hour when the recordings were played five minutes apart, and this dropped again to 1.7 an hour when the announcements were played 3 minutes apart.
“It’s great to have local children involved in helping to keep our site smoke and vape free” says Tess, Health Promotion Practitioner.
Tobacco kills over 8 million people globally, and over 20,000 people in Australia every year. This initiative aims to inform the public on the dangers of using tobacco, and serve as a reminder that Peninsula Health grounds are smoke and vape free.
If you have any questions regarding smoke free at Peninsula Health please email smokefree@phcn.vic.gov.au.