Less smoking in health institutions

BEIJING - Medical and health institutions made greater efforts in 2011 to reduce the use of tobacco on their premises in line with a national anti-tobacco campaign, the Ministry of Health announced Wednesday.

Medical institutions scored an average of 70.6 points out of a possible 100 on a secret assessment carried out in 3,340 medical institutions by a third-party research company from August to October 2011, according to the company's report. The score represents a 7.2-point increase over 2010.

Public medical institutions at the provincial level ranked highest on the assessment, while county-level institutions ranked lowest, the company's report said.

Medical institutions in the cities of Beijing, Chongqing and Shanghai, as well as the provinces of Jiangsu and Shaanxi, ranked highest on the report, while institutions in the provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang and Anhui, as well as the Tibet and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions, ranked last.

The ministry said it will strengthen supervision, encourage relevant departments to conduct both open and secret investigations and publicize the results of their investigations as part of the national anti-smoking campaign.

In 2010, the ministry urged all medical and health institutions, including hospitals, clinics and other medical units, to go smoke-free by 2011 as part of the national campaign.

From Chinadaily