Consequences of banning smoking in hospital grounds
Thursday, August 6, 2015 at 14:04 So, did you respond to the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Bill consultation survey?
The Bill will introduce restrictions on the sale of nicotine vapour products (NVPs) such as e-cigarettes and shisha pipes. These restrictions will include; a minimum purchase age of 18, prohibiting the sale of NVPs via vending machines, requiring NVP retailers to register on the tobacco retailer register, prohibit ‘proxy-purchasing’ for under 18s, restrict domestic advertising and promotions, implement an age verification policy for the sale of NVPs and ban staff under the age of 18 from selling tobacco and NVPs. The Bill would also make it an offence to smoke in parts of hospital grounds.
On behalf of Forest, I submitted a seven-page letter. Here's a taste:
The NHS has a duty of care to protect people’s health but that doesn’t include the right to nag, cajole or bully smokers to quit. Many smokers are in hospital for reasons that have nothing to do with smoking. Why should they be told they cannot go outside and have a cigarette in the open air?
It’s heartless to ban patients or staff from smoking anywhere on hospital grounds. Tobacco is a legal product and many people smoke to relieve stress. A cigarette break at work or while they are in hospital is something many people look forward to. For some patients may be one of the few pleasures they have while in hospital.
Driving the proposal to make smoking in hospital grounds an offence is a degree of bullying that is unacceptable in a tolerant society. People are no longer educated about the health risks of smoking. Today they are patronised, insulted, made to feel like lepers or, worse, threatened with prosecution and fines. The public health industry is engaged in a campaign of creeping prohibition. Banning smoking in the open air, even in hospital grounds, is a step too far.
On the potential consequences of banning smoking on NHS sites, I wrote:
In June 2007 the Daily Telegraph reported, 'A trainee accountant obsessed with serial killers has been found guilty of murdering a nurse as she took a cigarette break. Cheryl Moss, 33, was stabbed and slashed 72 times as she stood in parkland at the back of St George's hospital, Hornchurch, Essex, in April, last year.'
Although this was a tragic and isolated incident, can we be sure it will never happen again? Had it not been for a ban on smoking in the grounds of St George’s Hospital, Cheryl Moss would probably be alive today. The NHS has a duty of care to all its patients and staff. Why put anyone at risk unnecessarily by banning smoking across all NHS sites and forcing smokers off the grounds? The risk to patients, visitors and staff may be small but it is a risk nonetheless.
By all means restrict smoking in the area around entrances to hospitals, but making it an offence to smoke on the entire site is unreasonable and excessive. It is the firmly held opinion of Forest that banning smoking on the entire site of any NHS hospital is inhumane and demonstrates a staggering lack of empathy for patients, staff and visitors who take pleasure from smoking or find it a comfort in stressful times.
On the threat to make it an offence to knowingly allow anyone to smoke on hospital grounds, I wrote:
In theory, this part of the legislation could result in a member of staff, with many years of dedicated service behind them, being prosecuted simply because, with the best of intentions, they turned a blind eye to a patient who wanted to smoke outside, a patient whose immediate well-being could be helped by a quiet smoke in the hospital grounds.
Over the years there have been many anecdotal examples of staff taking patients who want to smoke outside so they can light up. How dreadful if this Bill was to lead to the prosecution of a dedicated doctor or nurse, not to mention the catastrophic impact that may have on their career.
I also addressed some of the issues concerning electronic cigarettes. You can download and read the full response here.
Note: I've been sounded out about giving oral evidence to the Scottish Parliament's Health and Sport Committee next month. I'll keep you posted.
Reader Comments (3)
If this comes into force there will be smokers who will avoid hospitalization completely or who will discharge themselves early.
Prosecuting staff who enable a patient to smoke is a nasty method of forcing compliance.
How dare these people set themselves up as saviours of health - they don't have an altruistic bone in their bodies or an ounce of decency.
“The NHS has a duty of care to protect people’s health but that doesn’t include the right to nag, cajole or bully smokers to quit.”
I think that Simon actually “straddled” the target with that., Duty of care covers a multitude of sins, it creates a legal minefield that could create issues outside the hospital.
If for example a patient or visitor is removed from hospital grounds for smoking (duty of care for the non smoker) and is subsequently involved in accident that causes them injury such as tripping or slipping on the pavement or contracts an illness due to inclement weather who then has lawful responsibility? Would it be the Local Authority who have the duty of care to ensure that trips and slips cannot happen due to uneven or slippery surfaces or the NHS trust who creates and enforces the policy that directly leads to the accident? or even both?
Under HASAW every person/organisation has the responsibility to report health and safety hazards, organisations have a legal responsibility to create a risk assessment of their policies and actions if it affects others, in this instance both the NHS trust and the Local authority have to produce a risk assessment of sending patients and visitors offsite from NHS property onto Local Authority property under their duty of care.
The answer here is to follow Health and Safety legislation, report violations of HASAW and accidents caused by removal of smokers from NHS trust property where injury is sustained due to falls or slips both on and off NHS trust property when removal is involved since that action is directly involved in causing the injury. After all the NHS trust has a duty of care to ensure that where they send you is safe, just as the Local Authority has the duty of care to ensure the pavements have no trip or slip hazards.
Having held a position where I was in part legally responsible for enforcing "Duty of care" for both staff and the public in a medium sized shopping centre I think that the legal problems associated with banning smokers and HASAW have not been fully thought through, for example in the tragic case of the Nurse Cheryl Moss it is my opinion that the NHS trust completely failed in their duty of care by placing her where she was at the time and place of her murder.
Tax pays for politicians who fund the NHS, so none of them have the right to act like dictators. Smoking rooms must be provided and the ridiculous ban must be binned or would politicians like it happen to them?