Abstract
Dear Editor,
As a surgeon who has been working in public hospitals for 26 years, I have spent a great deal of time considering factors that bestow increased risk of surgical complications. I was therefore drawn to Dr Berney's article1 Dr Berney has missed several important points. First, as surgeons, we cannot ‘enforce’ smoking cessation. We are not in people's homes, removing their cigarettes. What in fact is being proposed, and what we do have within our jurisdiction, is denial of access to surgery.
As a surgeon who has been working in public hospitals for 26 years, I have spent a great deal of time considering factors that bestow increased risk of surgical complications. I was therefore drawn to Dr Berney's article1 Dr Berney has missed several important points. First, as surgeons, we cannot ‘enforce’ smoking cessation. We are not in people's homes, removing their cigarettes. What in fact is being proposed, and what we do have within our jurisdiction, is denial of access to surgery.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1215-1215 |
Number of pages | 1 |
Journal | ANZ Journal of Surgery |
Volume | 90 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2020 |
Keywords
- letters
- Letter to the editor
- smoking
- smoking cessation
- access to surgery
- denial of access to surgery
- correlation
- socioeconomic disadvantage
- smoking rates
- correlation between socioeconomic disadvantage and smoking rates