Health board bids for total smoking ban

ONE of Scotland's largest health boards is today expected to make a second attempt to introduce a blanket ban on smoking at every hospital in its area.

Under the plans, patients could be refused treatment and staff disciplined or sacked for smoking in the grounds of hospital premises controlled by NHS Grampian.

The ban will even apply to staff caught smoking at any time while they are in uniform - or even wearing an NHS badge. And carrying tobacco would also be deemed an offence under the new rules being proposed by the health board.

An attempt to introduce the crackdown on smoking was abandoned last year in the face of overwhelming opposition from health service unions.