Since July 1, 2013 a ban on smoking in health care facilities became real when a new amendment of the Act on Tobacco Protection came into force, with the exception of smoking rooms in psychiatric wards. Smokers did not disappear from hospitals however, as we can see from daily routine. We conducted a cross-sectional survey research covering 275 beds of nine different departments of somatic medicine and 36 psychiatric beds. We focused on prevalence of smoking, and on questions about coping with withdrawal symptoms, motivation and barriers in smoking cessation in actual smokers. Especially we were interested about getting a real picture of the management of smokers in our hospital setting (according to the ABC model). The final sample consisted of 149 patients and accompanying persons of the somatic wards and 33 patients of the psychiatric ward. The point prevalence of actual smoking (defined as last 30 days use) ranged from O % to 23 % (average 8 %) in the somatic wards of the general hospital, 53 % in the psychiatric ward. As expected, a share of patients continues to smoke during hospitalization. There was a difference in the level of treatment demand between patients of the psychiatric and the somatic wards (59 % and 25 %, respectively). Only a minor part of the patients (40 %) is asked about smoking during hospital stay at somatic wards (step A of the ABC model of management). None of the actual smokers was offered smoking cessation support (step C). For research purposes we propose the realization of a multicentre study to add more detailed and more general information to this study. For practice we propose the development and implementation of guidelines for outpatient as well as inpatient settings, refusing the notion of smoking as a vice, and reflecting a different legal situation of patients in psychiatric and somatic facilities; a personal, financial and technical support is required, so is the tackling the barriers in the treatment demand.

Key words: smoking – tobacco – hospital – psychiatry – hospitalization – management – treatment