Smokers facing hard treatment

9:03am Wednesday 27th September 2006

PATIENTS at York Hospital will find it harder to pop outside for a sneaky cigarette, under strict new non-smoking plans.

Hospital chiefs are planning to rid their whole site of smoking by December, under a national drive for a "smoke-free NHS".

Smoking is already banned inside the hospital building, but it is still allowed in outside areas like its car parks.

Patients having a cigarette - sometimes still attached to hospital drips - have long been a familiar site at the hospital's entrance.

But that is all set to change as staff are instructed to challenge smokers if they are still on hospital property.

Chief executive Jim Easton told the hospital's annual general meeting this week: "I personally find it intolerable that we have a group of smokers sitting outside the hospital.

"I believe that in a health institution, it's intolerable that all our entrances are surrounded by cigarette butts.

"We have a group of staff and patient representatives looking at how we implement this. We need to take a tough line with our own staff.

"It will be completely unacceptable for any of our staff to smoke on the site. I will regard that as a disciplinary offence."

But Mr Easton acknowledged the difficulties of persuading some patients they should not smoke, and the possibility it would mean some would simply wander off site to have a cigarette.

He said: "It's a balance of risks. I'm sure you'll get people who will go further afield to smoke. Patients have human rights. We do not imprison our patients.

"We do not want to expose our staff to violence, but we will expect and tell our staff to challenge and ask people who are smoking to move on.

"Most members of staff I talk to come into hospital and their first experience you get is tripping over people smoking."

Last year, The Press teamed up with Selby and York Primary Care Trust for the Yes! To Clean Air campaign to banish smoking in the workplace. Smoking is banned on all primary care trust-run health premises in North Yorkshire, including the Monkgate walk-in centre.

• LUCY STEPHENS and DAN SMITH asked smokers and non-smokers outside York Hospital what they thought about the proposed ban.

Chris Bower, 21, of Liverpool, visiting a relative, said: "I don't think they should (ban smoking). People get stressed when they're visiting their family and need a cigarette."

Lee Jones, of Tadcaster, said: "It's fine. It's a free country. If people don't want you to smoke, so be it. It's going to be banned every-where else anyway."

John Hawthorne, 70, of Copmanthorpe, who was visiting his wife, said: "I think they should ban it on the hospital grounds or anywhere within the area of the hospital. We sit out here and people smoke at us."

Jean Hawthorne, 68, who is a patient at the hospital, and was being visited by her husband, said: "They should ban it altogether. It's worse at this end.

It's really smelly."

Sarah Ward, 34, of Northallerton, a friend of a patient, said: "I do agree in a sense. It's bad when people are coming out and smoking. At the same time, they are dealing with stressful situations."

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