Terminally-ill patients check out of hospice so they can continue to smoke (From York Press)

Terminally-ill patients check out of hospice so they can continue to smoke

11:00am Tuesday 18th September 2007 in

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TERMINALLY-ILL patients spending their final days in a York hospice have decided to return home after being denied their one remaining pleasure - cigarettes.

When the new smoke free legislation came into force on July 1, hospices had the option to allow smoking in certain bedrooms for the comfort of dying patients.

But St Leonard's Hospice, in Tadcaster Road, York, opted to enforce the blanket ban - prompting a number of patients to return home.

Doctors and campaigners said they were outraged by the decision and called for the hospice's trustees to rethink the policy.

Dr Brian McGregor, who is vice chairman of the York Local Medical Committee, said: "These are people who are at the end of their lives - they are terminally ill.

"The physician in me would never want to encourage smoking, but for somebody for whom medicine has failed, I can't see the logic in banning it.

"They are bed-bound, they are not able to enjoy food and drink and smoking is one of the few pleasures they have left.

"Smoking will not make any impact on their health now and I don't think we should be making them more unhappy by banning it."

He told The Press he already had two patients who had signed themselves out of the hospice because of the ban.

He said: "They are getting very good care at home from their families and from a team of district nurses and Macmillan nurses.

"But if they were in the hospice, the family would have more time to deal with the emotional aspect of being together, rather than having to worry about doing the caring."

Neil Rafferty, a spokesman for Forest, an organisation that campaigns for the right to enjoy smoking, said the decision was "absolutely horrendous".

He said: "It beggars belief. These are people who just want the opportunity to live their lives as best they can for as long as they can.

"They have come to the hospice so they can be cared for in a comforting way, and to tell them they can't indulge in a cigarette is unbelievably cruel.

"The trustees seem to be trying to send some kind of health message in the most inappropriate circumstances."

But a spokesman for St Leonard's Hospice said the hospice had decided to impose the ban following lengthy consultations with staff, patients, visitors, service users and external organisations.

He said: "The decision was not made lightly but, as a healthcare organisation, we felt it appropriate to embrace the legislation.

"The policy will not permit smoking by anyone on the hospice's premises or in its grounds. The policy applies to staff, visitors and patients.

"We are confident that our staff, patients and visitors will appreciate the change and will support us in its implementation."

Smokers can have a fag in grounds

Several hospices outside York still allow smoking in some areas.

It is understood that St Gemma's Hospice, in Leeds, has a smoking room and St Michael's Hospice, in Harrogate, allows smoking in its grounds.

Tony Collins, chief executive of St Michael's Hospice, said: "The smoking policy is a difficult call to make.

"We agreed to ban smoking inside the building while allowing patients and relatives to smoke in the grounds of the hospice.

"In what can be very difficult times for patients or their relatives we feel they should be able to do so outside where the risk to non smokers' health is minimised.

"We did consider allowing smoking in a patient's room but once a room has been smoked in it can remain unpleasant for a non smoker and we also had to consider staff and visitors."