HOSPITAL bosses say they may be not be able to ban smoking throughout the Royal Bolton Hospital and its grounds - despite pledges made last summer to phase it out.

Health chiefs in Bolton announced last August that they wanted to follow Bury's Fairfield General Hospital and completely ban smoking on the site.

However, Heather Edwards, head of communications at the Royal Bolton Hospital, said: "We have already banned smoking within our buildings and, ideally, we would like to have no smoking on the site in future.

"But although we encourage and support staff, visitors and patients not to smoke, we recognise that with a main road open to the public on the site, a total ban may not be achievable in the near future."

The hospital sparked controversy in June, 2001, by installing smoking shelters at a cost of £25,000.

Smoking has since been banned in all Royal Bolton Hospital buildings, but patients and staff can still smoke on hospital grounds.

Chiefs at the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust, which runs Fairfield, as well as Rochdale Infirmary, North Manchester General and the Royal Oldham Hospital, have decided to ban smoking anywhere in the hospital grounds from January 1.

As well as hospital buildings, the ban also includes car parks, in a bid to encourage people to stub out the habit.