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?

[anneasquith]

its going to be a long walk for some patients to have a fag , which could actually be dangerous.

[Zacs-Master]

Hospital grounds, away from people no! Around hospital entrances yes! There were a few sories of cancer sufferers ( one a child) having to walk thru smokers to go for their treatment which is clearly wrong (this was on R2 today).

[Eve]

Judging by the line of smokers (patients and non-patients) outside my hospital earlier, and any time really, I think they may find it difficult to enforce and may cause difficulties with patients sneaking off to hide for a cigarette who may collapse out of sight etc... I know it's their choice if they sneak off but I still forsee problems.

[pixie373]

They should allocate an area for those that want to smoke, that isn't right outside the entrance.

[browntrout]

If somebody wheeling themselves out to the car park, complete with drip,etc on a cold day for a fag, when they know they only have a few weeks to live is going to be battered by the H & S police, it's time to give up any pretence that we live in a tolerant society.

[sherrardk]

I think there should be designated areas way from entrances and high footfall areas. The likelihood is that if you are patient who wants a fag you are already having a Sugar enough day without going without a ciggie (and the majority of visitors are likely to be feeling some stress too). Also, does anyone want to deal with a stressed out nurse who hasn't had the ciggie that they so crave?

[sp1814]

One of the recommendations is that hospital staff shouldn't help patients out onto the grounds for a ciggie - and I understand that...because what that does is negate what they're there for (to improve their health).

The nearest equivalent I can think of is staff working at a detox centre, giving patients a lift to the local off licence.

On the other hand - say if you're a smoker, who's come to visit a dying relative? At this time of stress, do we really want them to have to traipse off of hospital grounds for a puff?

[boxtops]

Hospital grounds can mean half a mile away on the main road - not a good idea. There ought to be smoking facilities for patients, and a shelter out in the car park for relatives.

[sherrardk]

If someone is in hospital with a smoking related ailment then I can understand that, but if you have something unrelated then it is just sticking their noses in. Do they make fat people who are in hospital for nothing to do wing being fat go on a diet?

[2sp_]

Who is going to enforce the ban? Security staff? Nurses? These people have enough to do in a day without having to tell grown adults that they shouldn't be smoking.

And, can you imagine the headlines the first time a recently bereaved relative is reprimanded for smoking just after loosing someone close?

Let smokers make their own decisions. Give them a designated area to smoke and leave them to it.

[paddywak]

I'm sure I've read that one hospital tried to implement a total ban some years ago but had to rescind it as they found it impossible to enforce.

[woofgang]

Round here smoking on hospital grounds has been banned for some years. It is enforced strictly for staff, less so for patients and visitors. The staff ban came in when I was still employed as a manager. Staff had to leave hospital premised (including grounds) if they wanted to smoke in their breaks and were not allowed to smoke in uniform.So far as I know, this rule still applies.
Personally if I was a patient, I would not want to be cared for by staff, any staff, who stink of cigarette smoke.
When the rules came in, staff raised the stress relief issue. My own response to that is that my stress reliever of choice is a stiff drink and does that mean that I should be allowed to have that at work?
I agree about stressed and dying patients and stressed relis, especially those relis spending long scared days in the hospital; I also agree about other patients having to walk through smokers...its difficult. part of the issue with patients smoking is that if they do it in a hospital provided area, the hospital is responsible for their safety as well as their health. Unwell frail people, especially if sleepy are really not safe with fire.

[Eve]

There are signs up all around my hospital about no smoking on hospital grounds but nobody seems to take any notice. They have put a smoking shelter near (but a bit away from) the main entrance now.

I think it could lead to added problems for security who already deal with enough problems with people who are drunk, abusive, violent etc... Having been in A&E on a weekend evening, I can imagine it would lead to added confrontations and problems for staff in trying to stop people smoking outside.

[browntrout]

I wasn't joking. People who are dying from a smoking related condition will continue to smoke. Isn't it just plain cruel to try and prevent them. All that will happen is that smoking will be totally banned on hospital grounds, and politicians and their ilk will crow in their usual smug, self satisfied way about what a good job they are doing. But smoking will still take place. Reality must not be allowed to come into it.

[anneasquith]

I may be wrong, but I believe they wish to ban designated smoking areas,

[pixie373]

But it isn't a detox clinic, sp. People aren't there because they want to give up smoking. The medical staff are there to help with whatever they've been admitted with. It is legal to smoke, let people decide themselves.

[sherrardk]

The Queen Elizabeth in Birmingham has two smoking shelters on an island between two roads. It is away from the entrance and no one needs to walk past it. I, for one, was very grateful for it after a stressy 2 1/2 hour journey on a sweltering day with five hot, bothered and scared kids in tow.

[chrissa1]

A couple of years ago I was visiting a friend in hospital and I was finishing off my cigarette in the car park as I got out of the car. From nowhere came this booming voice telling me that smoking was not allowed on hospital grounds.
It was an announcement sort of message and frightened the life out of me.
Was I being spied upon? I was nowhere near the door to the building

[Eve]

I wondered about the rules on getting a member of staff to take someone for a cigarette break. When I was an in-patient on emergency surgery ward there was a man who was taken out in a wheelchair as he'd done something to his leg and he would get a nurse to take him out. Some of the nurses seemed to be going somewhere a bit more hidden.

That said though, it looks more obvious when they are off site as you see them on the main road and it can be quite easy to tell if some are hospital staff on a cigarette break. I think that looks worse than if they are dispersed and hidden away around the site.

[pusskin]

Keep all smoking arrangements as they are. I feel for the nurses too who have the need to smoke if they wish. This proposal is unkind to all concerned.