‘Do other hospitals in the area have E-cigarettes. If so, how are they managed on the wards/in the hospital. If not, what has been the justification for not allowing E-cigarettes?’
Yes we do- there are charging stations in the nursing offices, all items are dispensed and then retrieved. On the acute ward someone is allocated to this, on the rehab ward there is more personal responsibility given to the chaps to comply with the rules and someone spot checks. They use little carry baskets to divide them up and label so can always be accounted for. You can’t use them inside- must be used in internal courtyards. Moorlands View
In Sheffield had someone have safety e-cigs which they tested not just one they got from a shop. They could only use then in their bedrooms and in the courtyard. We did find that the E-Cigs did not last long and were expensive for them. Patients were not going out on leave much and would be asking for money of other patient to buy then which led to a lot of safeguarding and they had to limit the amount they could buy in one day. We then had a patient who swallowed one and had to have surgery to remove it at it was really dangerous for them and it has a lithium battery in it. They are good for people who would not be at risk of swallowing, and they don’t have any leave. Cygnet
We do use E-cigarettes here at Forest Lodge Hospital. This is managed however by booking in and out by staff. On the Rehabilitation ward these are booked into the office for charging overnight and can be signed out in the morning by patients. This is kept on their person until the night again. Patients are aware and have agreed that these can be smoked in the courtyard and not on the ward/in bedrooms. On the Assessment ward it is a bit different as these are signed in and out as and when patients need to use them, and again are used in the courtyard. Hope this helps, we have been doing this now since Covid, and is managed really well. Forest Lodge
We have ecigs in our hospital. An approved brand was chosen, being single use non re chargeable. We have had these for a number of years now. They are purchased within the hospital and stored by staff. Signed out using the serial number on them to service users. The product is not without management issue. Being used inappropriately, swapped with others and traded causing safeguarding concern etc. It is expected that if ecigs are being used, other forms of nicotine replacement are not prescribed concurrently. The product is meant to be equivalent to 30 cigs. Our procedure indicates only one per day. This also causes conflict at times. The brand is not popular with service users, and we have asked if we can explore other products given the massive expansion of this market. No progress with this so far! Newton Lodge
We have recently been through a trail of allowing patients to use e-cigs at Stockton hall. We had a vending machine placed near to our entrance, patients were then escorted to and from the machine at allocated times during the day. Patients were allowed to have a maximum of 2 e-cigs per day and had to hand one in to get the next one. They were allowed to use them in their bedrooms and outside ward garden. During the trial, we had a number of issues ranging from – an increase in trading, patients who had not used nicotine before started using them, the cost, patients were spending up to £12 per day to buy them, including complaints from family members about the cost and how much their family members were spending, increase in confrontational situations between staff and patients around e-cigs, the amount of staff time needed to facilitate trips to the vending machine. We had a review after about 18 months and decided to stop the trial and remove the machine and become a nicotine free hospital (again). Initially we had some resistance from patients but on the whole patients have said that they are glad we removed the vending machine. Stockton Hall
We do allow vaping at Amber; we have a policy where if they want to vape, they have to purchase one of 3 risk assessed models at our local vape shop and they can only use liquid purchased from there. They cannot vape inside the building so they must use, or compound and outdoor spaces and they are not allowed to charge their devices in their room instead they hand them in to the nursing office where staff put them on charge to prevent any overheating. Amber Lodge