9:30am Thursday 21st December 2006
By Lucy Stephens
LIGHTING up outside York hospital will be banned from the New Year under a strict new non-smoking regime.
Notices have now gone up at the hospital advising patients and staff that its grounds will be a no-smoking zone from January 1.
Smoking was outlawed inside the hospital building in 2001, but the new move extends the restriction to the entire site, which ends at Wigginton Road.
Patients having a cigarette, sometimes still attached to drips, have long been a familiar site at the hospital's entrance.
That is all set to change after bosses from the hospital's board yesterday gave formal approval to the new regulations.
Nursing director Mike Proctor said staff would be enforcing the policy, but they should not put themselves into potentially difficult situations if patients were being aggressive.
He said: "We will be informing people they are not allowed to smoke in a non-confrontational and gentle way. Members of staff will take it upon themselves to try and enforce this as much as possible."
Banning smoking on hospital grounds has been a controversial issue for some, who say it is robbing patients of their rights - especially at a time when they are ill and vulnerable.
Simon Clark, director of pro-smoking freedom lobby Forest, said: "I think it's a great pity that hospitals take this stance.
"I understand that they don't want to condone people smoking but hospitals are supposed to be caring institutions and they should be making life comfortable for patients and even members of staff who want to smoke. Hospitals can be very stressful places, not just for patients but also for members of staff."
Mr Proctor said he understood that people might object to a no-smoking policy, but said patients could use coming into hospital as an opportunity to give up the habit.
He said: "What we're trying to do is introduce a smoke-free environment for the whole population. We haven't had smoking in the building since 2001 and it's not caused that many problems.
"The country is generally moving to a culture where non-smoking is the norm - what we're doing is reflecting the generally cultural move into that. We're moving in the direction of travel, not against it.
"Every time we make restrictions on smoking there are always huge protests and then it becomes accepted as the norm. I think this will be another example of that.
"We deal with the outcomes of long-term smoking this hospital every day, heart disease, lung cancer - it would be almost perverse for a hospital to allowing smoking on its premises when it causes such damage to patients' health."
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