Ban On Smoking On Hospital Grounds

[sp1814]

Do you agree with these proposals?

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-told-to-ban-smoking-near-hospitals-8966155.html

I think it kinda makes sense really...especially if health trusts can offer free support (patches, gum, inhalers etc).

What do you think?

[paddywak]

A very good friend of ours died of lung cancer a few years ago and she smoked like a chimney right up to the end. We used to go visit her in the hospice on the same days every week and she'd be sat waiting for us in her wheelchair with her fags and matches ready to be wheeled out to the smoking area.There was always 6-7 people all in their chairs all smoking and all of the opinion that it was a bit late to pack in smoking.

[Zacs-Master]

So pus skin, you think it's OK for cancer sufferers to have to walk thru smokers on the way to their treatment?

[Eve]

They probably have pre-recorded messages they can play, either generally and/or if they are watching and see people smoking, cameras watching over the car park maybe. They have them on the tram system here and in some of the bus/railway stations, often on platforms where there aren't so many staff about.

[sherrardk]

I don't think it is fair for anyone to walk through someone else's smoke. I don't like it and I am a smoker. (The smokers didn't cause the cancer sufferers cancer so that's a bit OTT.)

[pusskin]

Zacs, that wasnt what I said!
I wouldnt want anyone to walk through my smoke, and I wouldnt like it either.
I go in tomorrow for my bladder op, and I will refrain from smoking for one day and night hopefully.
I agree with the smoking shelters, no harm done is there for people who are really uptight and want a ciggie out in the open air.

[sp1814]

sherrardk - I think Zac might be saying that someone being treated for cancer (especially lung cancer) won't appreciate any form of second hand smoke.

I feel myself being persuaded by both sides (or actually all three sides) of this debate.

Straddling the fence...

[DTCwordfan]

Complete separation; if that can't be achieved then rule in favour of the non-smoker; after all, it is a hospital.

[Zacs-Master]

Spells in your bum sp ;-)
You said you wanted things to stay as they were puss.

[pixie373]

...not a prison

[woofgang]

pusskin is it right for patients who do not smoke and who may be feeling queasy for many reasons, to be cared for by staff who smell of ciggie smoke? I am also not sure how good a use it is of staff time, to take smokers out for fags and to supervise those smokers who are not safe to be left. Maybe the cigarette manufacturers could sponsor smoking attendants to assist those patients who want to smoke?
I know I sound like a grumpy difficult cow but honestly its not as easy as just letting those staff who wish to smoke do so while they are at work and not as easy as just saying oh give patients somewhere to go.

[woofgang]

edit: the reason that i sound like a grumpy difficult cow is probably because I am one :-)

[Mamyalynne]

I have never smoked outside of entrances and boy have I spent many years on and off visiting our local hospital.

Ours built shelters well away from buildings, then after a couple of years changed to all 'No Smoking' in the grounds and demolished them.

People gravitated back to the entrances again - so a poll was held by the Hospital in the local paper, public voted for the return of shelters (albeit marginally) the hospital refused to honour the results of the poll.

[sherrardk]

Staff should only be allowed to smoke during their designated breaks (as I presume most employees are allowed to do). The patients I saw smoking during my recent hospital visits all a managed to get outside unaided.

[ChillDoubt]

I'm hoping the same stringent rules are implemented in Wales. I'm fed up of having to wade through the throng that blocks the entrance to the hospital where I work, all flouting the rules underneath the large Smoke Free Site signs in place.
Then there's the dog ends that inevitably get carried in underfoot or blown through the doorway.
Furthermore, it's now getting to the point where I will no longer cover colleagues who 'want to got for a quick drag' to their car during their break, I've had enough.

It is a dreadful sight seeing patients with drips and catheter bags, amputees in wheelchairs and young, epcpectant mothers all huddled at the Hospital Main Entrance getting their fix under a large cloud of passive smoke. It's even worse seeing NHS employees a little further out of sight among the bushes, the snoutcasts trying to get a few drags in before they start work.

Rant over.

[pixie373]

Ours is officially no-smoking, including the grounds. So everyone goes wherever they want.

[Mamyalynne]

Oh yes, if you want to get out you will and rarely are you the only smoker on a ward/unit - other patients help those less mobile.

[pusskin]

I have never seen patients walk through clouds of smoke, maybe it happens.
That would be awfull as i know ciggies do stink.
Dont know what the answer is really, but I do sypathise with non smokers too and concerns all round.

[pixie373]

Should we just ban anything that doesn't look pretty, chill?

[Mamyalynne]

I also agree that staff should get no more breaks simply because they are smokers - that would be ridiculous.

[woofgang]

sherrardk, the problem with staff smoking in their breaks is that their clothes, hair and breath stinks afterwards. As NHS staff breaks are usually unpaid, this was dealt with here by saying that staff were not allowed to smoke in uniform or on hospital premises. We were absolutely up front about the rules being, in part, deterrent for the comfort of non smoking patients.