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UK: unusual methods make hospital smoke-free

d.simpson@iath.org

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

From a general hospital in the midlands of England comes a curious tale of direct action to enforce health service smoke-free regulations. The problem was as instructive as the solution. National and local medical and health organisations have been pressing for totally smoke-free health service premises for more than a quarter of a century. So, with a deadline of December, 2006 for all National Health Service premises to finally be smoke free, many would say it was long overdue.

Nevertheless, it was often a long, messy struggle to agree to and implement a ban. At the hospital in question, those resisting the move invoked the spectre of patients, some possibly elderly, lonely and in the last few months of life, whose only comfort and pleasure was smoking. Mostly, the resisters were smoking members of staff, and the price eventually paid for their agreement to the ban was the establishment of . . . [Full text of this article]