Patients and visitors slammed for smoking outside East Lancashire hospitals

According to critics, groups of smokers stand outside the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospitals on a daily basis, forcing people with chronic lung conditions to endure ‘clouds of smoke’. One family said this was particularly distressing for their sick daughter who was repeatedly subjected to smoke during visits to the Royal Blackburn.

Amelia Dickinson, 12, suffers from cystic fibrosis, and her father Symon is worried about the impact the smoke has on her chronic lung condition.

Mr Dickinson, who lives in Whalley, said: “We have to spend many, many hours at Blackburn hospital.

“Every time we go we have to walk past all the smokers who stand at the entrance. My daughter has to hold her breath.

“The fact that the hospital allows these people to stand literally inches away from the main entrance smoking absolutely disgusts me.

“I had the misfortune to be in hospital with my daughter on Sunday and the hospital had the main doors wide open and the whole of the downstairs of the hospital stank of smoke.

“She is currently on IV lines three times a day because she is so ill. That is why I'm so angry.

“We are trying so hard to make her better, but the one place that she should be getting the best treatment possible is letting her and hundreds of others down by letting people smoke at the entrance.”

Mr Dickinson said he saw a nurse smoking outside the children’s ward on Monday.

He said: “When I went outside, there was a nurse standing under a no smoking sign, right outside the entrance to the children's ward smoking. I have never been so shocked in my life.”

Burnley General suffers from the same problem and Padiham resident Jean Cunningham said: “I go up to Phase Five for my diabetes and last time there were three or four if not more smokers outside. There was so much smoke.

“I’m asthmatic and I think if you’re going to have to smoke there should be designated areas. I accept that some people have to smoke, but they shouldn’t stand outside the doors.”

A spokesman for the hospital trust said designated smoking shelters were removed earlier this year, as part of a bid to make hospital grounds smoke-free.

Russ McLean, chairman of the Patient Voices group, hit out over the trust’s failure to act.

He said: “I have also received a lot of complaints about this. It is something that I have spoken with the trust about on a number of occasions.

“Back in February they told me that they were going to get proactive and get security guards to move people on but I haven’t seen any evidence of that.

“Certainly, I think the trust should be more proactive about stopping smokers, particularly at entrances where people have to fight their way through clouds of smoke. I had to do it myself the other day, and if you ask them to move, you just get sworn at.

“I’d like to see the Trust taking more of a firm stance. It needs sorting out and it needs sorting out quickly.

“I will be contacting the chief executive about this issue again.

“There should be zero-tolerance to staff smoking on site. Staff should be setting an example.”

Burnley MP Gordon Birtwistle said that he had raised the issue with hospital staff.

He said: “I think it’s outrageous that you go to visit people in hospital and you have people smoking at the entrance.

“They stand right in the doorway and you have literally got to push your way right past and breathe in their smoke.

“I understand that people have a right to smoke, but I don’t think they have a right to do things that offend other people.”

A spokeswoman for the hospital trust said that the issue of allowing people to smoke on hospital grounds was under review.

She confirmed staff were not allowed to smoke on site and will be dealt with by managers if caught doing so.

Lynne Barton, chairman of the No Smoking Group at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said: “We’d like to apologise to Mr Dickinson for any distress caused to his daughter by having to pass by smokers at the entrance over the weekend.

“As an NHS employer, the trust has a duty to protect our patients from the health hazard that smoking represents and we take this very seriously.

“In July we undertook a survey with patients, relatives and visitors at both the Burnley and Blackburn sites to ascertain their views on smoking at the entrances and within the grounds of our sites.

“A report of the findings is currently being compiled and will initially be discussed at the trust’s ‘No Smoking Group’ and recommendations will be then made to Trust Executive Management.

“We are working hard to address the issues of smoking on all our sites but we also need the support of all staff, patients and visitors to ensure they recognise our effort to make our sites smoke-free.

“The UK’s current smoking regulations do not extend to outdoors, so although we are working hard to reduce smoking on the grounds of our hospitals, there is no legislation to support this.”