The Catalan Oncology Institute gets maximum international distinction for its fight against tobacco

Barcelona (CNA).- The Catalan Oncology Institute, located in L’Hospitalet –just outside Barcelona– has been recognised with the ‘Gold Level Award’ from the Global Network for Tobacco Health Care Services, due to its fight against tobacco consumption. This is the maximum international award given to those health centres that have shown important progress in tobacco consumption policies and that represent an example for other organisations in the battle against smoking. The award ceremony took place in Taipei, in the context of the 20^th Conference of the International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services. Only ten hospitals around the world have this distinction, among them another Catalan institution: Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Manresa, in Central Catalonia.

To get the ‘Gold Level’, hospitals must prove the implementation of tobacco consumption’s control policies, according to the Global Network for Tobacco Health Care Services’ strict standards. The applications are evaluated by an international jury that takes into account how patients, health professionals and other workers are encouraged to stop smoking, and the absolute prohibition of smoking in both internal and external spaces of the health centre’s facilities, in order to protect both workers and patients from smoke.

This organisation emphasised the long experience in the field of tobacco consumption control at the Catalan Oncology Institute (ICO), as it has been leading the Non-smoke Hospitals Catalan Network for ten years and is currently the coordinator centre of the International Network of Non-smoke Hospitals.

The jury also considered positively the training programme set up to help workers and patients from Catalan hospitals. International experts recognised the achievement of converting the whole of the hospital’s facilities into a completely non-smoking area.

Only ten hospitals in the world have received this distinction before, among which there is the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu from Manresa –about 60km from Barcelona–, which was the first Spanish centre to receive it.