The Trust that runs the King’s Mill hospital is set to crack down on smoking on their premises after a number of patients have complained.
All of Sherwood Forest Hospital NHS Trust’s (SFH) sites, including King’s Mill and Newark and Mansfield Community Hospitals, are officially smoke-free.
However SFH has said that smoking and litter from cigarettes is still an issue, particularly near main entrances.
One of the Trust’s public governors Debra Barlow, who had a double lung transplant last year, wants people to be mindful of others.
She said: “I have to visit the hospital for regular check-ups and having to walk through smoke to get to the entrance is really quite distressing for me, as I am sure it is for others who don’t want to breathe in people’s smoke.
“Having had a double lung transplant, it’s even more important for me to look after my lungs and make sure I am not inhaling damaging smoke.
“I remember coming into King’s Mill with an oxygen tank; it was hard enough to breathe with the aid of oxygen, without having to navigate through the smoke as I approached the front doors.
“There’s very clear signage right outside the main buildings saying that it is a smoke-free site and people should be respectful of this and smoke well away from the hospital.”
Debra is not the only patient to have raised concerns about smoking at King’s Mill hospital.
Another patient who has a lung condition said: “Arriving recently at King’s Mill Hospital, while on medication for an exacerbation of my COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), I had to “run the gauntlet” to the entrance through the haze of blue cigarette smoke.
“I am an ex-smoker and have no issue with people smoking if they want to but it needs to be away from the entrance.
“I have asked people to move away from the entrance in the past and they have when I explain that I have a lung condition.”
A recovering cancer patient said: “The Trust needs to consider moving smokers from the main entrance; having to access the hospital through large groups of smokers outside the main entrance and having to inhale their smoke is a real concern.”
Another patient said: “Their website indicates that King’s Mill Hospital is a no smoking site, yet outside the main entrance to the hospital under a very large no smoking sign, people are stood around smoking.
“I do not want to access the hospital main entrance through clouds of cigarette smoke.”
The Trust have said that they will be teaming up with community protection officers (CPOs) from Ashfield District Council who will begin to patrol SFH sites.
Chair of SFH Peter Marks said: “We have been working for some time to make our hospitals smoke-free, but people are still smoking, especially in front of the main building at King’s Mill and outside our Emergency Department.
“We want to make our hospitals healthy and safe environments, so we are asking patients, visitors and staff to be mindful of others health and not to smoke on our sites to protect others against the harmful effects of second hand smoke.”
