Okay to light up in Wanganui rest homes

Whanganui District Health Board has no intention of following its Palmerston North counterpart by banning smoking in rest homes.

MidCentral District Health Board has recently signed a contract with rest homes and hospitals that would see residents unable to smoke anywhere on the premises.

The DHB's contract stipulates that all internal areas must be smoke-free from December and all external areas to follow suit in July next year.

Andrea Bunn, Whanganui District Health Board's head of older people health care, said the aged residential care national agreement does not require providers to be smoke-free.

"The Whanganui District Health Board supports this," Mrs Bunn said.

All Access. All in one subscription. From $2 per week

Subscribe now

All Access Weekly

From $2 per week

Pay just

$15.75

$2

per week ongoing

Subscribe now

BEST VALUE

All Access Annual

Pay just

$449

$49

per year ongoing

Subscribe now

Learn more

30

In a statement, MidCentral's funding manager, Mike Grant, said some local providers supported the ban.

He said the DHB had been progressively including smoke-free clauses on a voluntary basis, and it was so popular that it was agreed to roll this into all future contracts.

The New Zealand Aged Care Association has slammed the policy, saying it ignored the rights of the elderly and was "tantamount to elder abuse".

"It also ignores the reality that in one of the most difficult stages of someone's life the DHB wants to forcibly stop the elderly doing something that brings them comfort," said chief executive Martin Taylor.