Hospitals, have a heart
Friday, April 24, 2015 at 14:17 A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the impact of new anti-smoking guidelines in Scotland.
Introduced on April 1, they're designed to stop people smoking anywhere on hospitals grounds.
In particular, I noted the predicament of an elderly woman who is suffering from dementia and has effectively been prohibited from smoking because she can't leave the hospital grounds without supervision.
Newspapers were reporting that many patients were ignoring the 'no smoking' guidelines but that doesn't help this particular patient because she can't even leave the building on her own.
See Commonsense and decency sacrificed on the altar of public health.
So far I've taken calls from newspapers in Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Highlands who all report that scores of patients are ignoring the regulations, and this week the Dundee Courier conducted its own investigation and discovered the same thing (Hospitals’ cigarettes ban goes up in smoke).
However, instead of admitting the policy is a failure and heartless to the patients concerned, some of whom are on drips or largely immobile, campaigners are already calling for the regulations to be tightened. On no account must anyone be allowed to choose to smoke in the open air in the vicinity of a hospital.
Although the Courier's initial report was a bit one-sided, to put it mildly, a reporter later rang me and wrote a follow-up piece:
Group says enforcing smoke-free zones at hospitals would be a ‘complete waste of money’ (Courier).
I suspect this issue will run and run so if you know of any cases where people are suffering as a result of these regulations please get in touch.
Dick Puddlecote has also written about it here.
Reader Comments (5)
I am TOTALLY hospital phobic ! They cause me GREAT STRESS even if I am only accompanying my wife for a routine outpatients appointment. If I had to have even a minor procedure I would need to smoke 2 or 3 cigarettes before entering the building. I am quite disabled so find it difficult to walk off hospital grounds !!!
Tax payers who are smokers pay for hospitals.Hospitals have no right to treat smokers so abysmally nor do dictatorial Establishment politicians.
Outdoor smoking bans at hospitals should be repealed immediately. No additional outdoor bans should be enacted. Next, separate ventilation for designated indoor smoking areas should be provided. It's time to restore reasonable and balanced smoking policies.
My local hospital is required by law to recruit members of the public for a 'Patient's Advisory Committee' which produces an annual report on public record. Is this not the case with UK hospitals? As the hospital management get to pick from applicants it isn't as impartial as it should be, but presumably member names are also on public record, so one could pass on complaints via them?
Similarly, hospitals seem to love inflicting those annoying 'How did we do?' forms on visitors. If we all make full use of these to comment that our patient/visitor 'experience' was very definitely unpleasant and a cause of increased stress, due to being unable to light up peacefully in a safe space, surely the sheer number of complaints has to surface somewhere.
Following on from Manx, all hospitals have a formal complaints procedure which they must make available to patients.