The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Smokers ‘flouting’ hospitals’ policy
Health boards urged to get tough on people who continue to smoke outside hospitals
Health boards have been urged to crack down on people flouting no smoking policies outside hospitals.
Anti-smoking groups have called for stricter measures to be introduced as complaints about staff, patients and visitors smoking beside hospital entrances and exits in Fife and Tayside continue to flood in despite a “ban” coming into force in April last year.
Hospital grounds, health centres and other NHS buildings were covered by the Scottish Government’s call for smoke-free zones but anecdotal evidence at key healthcare sites across Courier Country, including Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy and Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, suggests those pleas are still being ignored by many.
One whistleblower, who did not wish to be named, has claimed the issue is getting worse in Kirkcaldy in particular, where there have been renewed reports of tobacco smoke drifting through open windows into a ward full of babies.
“No one is doing a thing about it,” the staff member claimed.
“This was in the papers a while back but it’s just been allowed to go on, and it was even worse the other day when we had the sunshine.
“The signs are up, but folk are just ignoring them.”
The Scottish Government’s Health Bill made it an offence to smoke within a designated no smoking area around buildings in NHS hospital grounds, creating specific criminal offences for health and social care workers found to be deliberately flouting the law.
However, policing the restrictions has proved extremely problematic for health boards across Scotland, prompting new calls for action.
Sheila Duffy, chief executive of health charity ASH Scotland, said smoke beside the neonatal unit in Kirkcaldy was an issue she had been made aware of in particular, and stressed that passive smoking puts people’s health at risk.
She said: “Hospital grounds are smoke-free by policy, because hospitals are dealing day in and day out with the immense health damage caused by tobacco.
“We do need to be compassionate both to those whose health is vulnerable and who need to be protected from breathing tobacco smoke, and also to people who began smoking as children and can find it hard to quit cigarettes.
“There is free expert advice and support through the NHS to help smokers thinking about quitting or who want advice about managing their smoking when in hospital, and the Scottish Parliament has passed legislation that will create an area around hospital buildings to be covered by the same law as indoor spaces.
“The main message in all this is that tobacco and health don’t mix.”
However, Simon Clark, director of pro-smoking group Forest, said he believed hospitals had far more important things to focus on.
“We understand why hospitals don’t want to encourage people to smoke outside but hospitals are extremely stressful places for many people, not just for patients but visitors and staff as well,” he said.
“As long as it’s away from the entrance and not inconveniencing others, people should be allowed to smoke on hospital grounds.
“A designated smoking area might help, but we just think hospitals need to show a little bit of compassion for people who are feeling very stressed – and a lot of people find that smoking can bring pleasure and help them relax.
“Cracking down on people smoking outside hospitals seems a waste of time and money, and we’ve heard of some hospitals installing public address systems and people trying to enforce this.” See comment on page 30
The signs are up, but folk are just ignoring them. WHISTLEBLOWER