BOSSES from the Royal Bolton are asking you whether new smoking shelters should be built at the hospital. Although smoking in the hospital grounds is prohibited, it is virtually impossible to enforce, as it is not underpinned by the law.

And concerns have been growing as visitors and patients, some on drips and in wheelchairs, smoke near the entrances, to the annoyance of non-smokers visiting or attending the building.

Bolton News health correspondent JESSICA BELL takes a look at the for and against arguments FOR: SMOKING shelters will move smokers away from the entrances to hospital buildings and stop people causing hazards by smoking in stairwells, those in favour of the shelters have said.

Janet Woods, a customer care assistant, based in the main entrance of the Royal Bolton Hospital, said patients and visitors complained to her every day about people smoking outside.

Ms Woods said people ignored the no smoking signs and when asked not to smoke could often become abusive.

She added: “If there was a smoking shelter then we could send the smokers there instead of going out and saying you can’t smoke here, which is when they get abusive.

“I know it is a no smoking site but I don’t think they are ever going to stop people smoking completely.”

Complaints have come from people having to walk through “clouds of smoke” to get into the hospital, from people on wards who could smell smoke and from pregnant women who have had to breathe in second hand smoke.

One complainant wrote: “I don't smoke and never have done. I have avoided second-hand smoke entirely throughout my pregnancy, apart from when visiting the antenatal clinic.

“It's ironic that the place I am going to for health care is the only place I am inhaling other people’s smoke.

“It also concerns me that when I leave the hospital with my baby, she could inhale second-hand smoke.I find it intimidating, very unpleasant and it makes me feel uncomfortable.

“I am writing to suggest a smoking shelter could be built, far enough away from the main entrance and the route down from the car park.“ Pro smoking campaign group Forest believes hospitals are stressful places and that smoking should not be banned.

Simon Clark, director of the group, said banning smoking in the open air in hospital grounds is a “step too far” and supports the idea of shelters at the Royal Bolton.

He added: “I agree it may not look good if people are smoking outside the main entrance but this is one of many unintended consequences of the existing smoking ban.

“Unable to light up indoors in a separate, well-ventilated smoking room, smokers have to stand outside. Inevitably they choose to stand by entrances and doors where there may be some shelter from the elements.

“The answer to this problem is not more restrictions, forcing smokers further away with threats of fines and other penalties. The solution is a well signposted smoking shelter where patients, visitors and staff can light up in some degree of comfort.”

He claimed that smokers were being made to feel like “lepers” and it was “uncaring” to ban smoking from hospitals.

Mr Clark also pointed out that several other hospitals had reversed their smoking ban, including the Bradford Royal Infirmary, which reintroduced a smoking shelter in 2012 after banning smoking in the grounds in 2006.

AGAINST: THE hospital should remain smoke free and building smoking shelters would send the wrong message out to people, those opposing the shelters have claimed.

Dr Brian Bradley, consultant respiratory physician at the Royal Bolton Hospital, is against the idea of building smoking shelters and said any “self-respecting hospital” should be promoting stopping smoking, not encouraging it.

Dr Bradley, who treats patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease caused by smoking said 50 per cent of smokers will died from a smoking-related disease.

He added: “There is no question that smoking causes significant problems and ill health and I am strongly in favour of encouraging patients to stop smoking for their health benefits.

“I think as a hospital and as health care providers we should be spending our time helping people to stop smoking.

“If the nursing and clinical staff take their job seriously they should be doing everything they can to help people stop smoking but if we put up smoking shelters we are saying it is okay to smoke.”

Gary Bickerstaffe, a health improvement specialist at the hospital, is passionately opposed to smoking shelters and believes the Trust should enforce its smoking ban police more strictly.

He believes smokers will still congregate outside the entrances to the building even if there are shelters as they would only accommodate three or four people comfortably and could become hazardous if crowded, for patients with drips or on crutches.

Mr Bickerstaffe added: “The fact is that people won’t walk the short distance to a smoking shelter and they will still congregate outside the entrance. I think it will make no difference whatsoever.”

He believes Bolton’s “smoke free” policy has not been given a chance to work and says it needs to be enforced by managers.

“Nobody wants to go and tell smokers that they can’t smoke as they will get verbal abuse. I think managers should do this first and then staff will feel a bit more confident,” he added.

Mr Bickerstaffe, who has been part of a team that produced draft guidance for NICE about the importance of smoke-free hospitals, also believes building the shelters will harm Bolton’s good reputation for smoking cessation services.

He believes all patients should be given access to the stop smoking services and actively encouraged to quit.

People can fill in and return the coupon to The Big Hospital Smoking Debate, c/o The Bolton News, The Wellsprings, Victoria Square, Bolton, BL1 1AR by noon on Monday June 17, 2013.

You can also call in and drop the completed coupons off at our office or at the main Royal Bolton Hospital reception.

Alternatively, you can vote YES or NO online at theboltonnews.co.uk/BigHospitalSmokingDebate or at boltonft.nhs.uk Trust bosses have promised they will abide by the result of the vote.