Staff fearful of backlash when NHS outlaws smoking outside

Published on Monday 31 March 2008 10:17

HOSPITAL staff will suffer the backlash when NHS Lothian sites go smoke-free as expected next year, unions warned today.

Unison, the public sector union, is concerned that nurses and other workers will be left to tell stressed relatives and unhappy patients not to smoke on NHS land.

Currently people can smoke outside hospital buildings, but from next spring they will have to leave health board property altogether before lighting up.

It will mean smokers at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, for example, must go to the other side of the perimeter wall along Old Dalkeith Road.

Mick McGahey, Unison branch secretary for the Lothian University Hospitals Division, said: "We are supportive of there being a smoking ban in public places but we do have issues with how it is going to be managed. My concern is: who is going to tell the public that they cannot smoke here?

"How do we sort out the sensitivities when it is someone dealing with a fatality?"

NHS Lothian has not yet decided how the ban will be enforced.

The health board has also revealed plans to spend 40,000 erecting eight temporary smoking shelters, just one year ahead of the ban. Patients representatives accused them of wasting money.

Visitors and patients have complained about passive smoking outside the Western General and Royal Infirmary hospitals in Edinburgh, and St John's in Livingston.

Two shelters have so far been installed at the Western General, with another at the Royal Victoria Hospital. Three are to be erected at St John's in the coming days, followed by two at the ERI.

The Scotland Patients' Association accused the health board of promoting double standards. Chairwoman Margaret Watt said:

"This is a waste of money – money they could be putting into the health service, for drugs and facilities for patients."

She added: "We are seeing adverts on TV saying that cigarettes cause cancer, then we are creating a culture where people can smoke. There is a double standard here."

Helena Connelly, smoking cessation co-ordinator for NHS Lothian, said the shelters were an "interim measure" in preparation for the complete smoking ban in spring 2009. "We have a buy-back option with the contractors, where we can return the shelters when they are removed, in order to recover some of the costs," she added.

"The aim of the shelters is to ensure that people only smoke in designated places to minimise discomfort and disruption for our staff, patients and visitors.

"The shelters will act as a platform to promote our stop smoking services, to encourage people to seek help to give up, and to help in the planned transition to smoke-free grounds in 2009.

"This is part of NHS Lothian's Tobacco Strategy."