HEALTHCARE staff are counting down the last month until the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch becomes completely smokefree.

On Wednesday, June 17, the hospital, as well as the Kidderminster Hospital and Worcestershire Royal hospitals, will become smokefree hospital sites – 99 days after the initial countdown began on No Smoking Day 2015.

The hospitals have been smokefree to staff since June 2014 and next month the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust will be asking all patients and visitors to ‘stub it out’.

The trust runs its own stop smoking service for patients, staff and the public. Since the countdown began in March, more than 100 hopeful quitters have been seen by its stop smoking advisors.

Redditch man Karl Hanks successfully quit smoking with help from the trust’s stop smoking service.

He said: “The service provided was fantastic. It was at a convenient time to suit my busy schedule.

“It was reassuring to know that an advisor was always available to answer any questions or give me some advice. I would highly recommend this service to anyone who wants to quit smoking.”

Mary Cornford-Hill, a stop smoking advisor, said: “Even though there is just one month left until our hospitals are completely smokefree it’s not too late for people to contact us if they want our help to quit.

“It takes most people 12 weeks to overcome dependency on nicotine, so we want to offer support to people now. With the help of an NHS stop smoking advisor, you are four times more likely to quit.”

To book an appointment with a stop smoking advisor, you can call 01562 513225. Appointments are available in Kidderminster, Worcester, Redditch, Bromsgrove and Evesham.

Following the introduction of the smokefree rules, the trust will be removing smoking shelters from the hospitals and actively asking people to ‘stub it out’ if they are seen smoking.