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"Smoking in hospital grounds"

About: Antrim Area Hospital / Accidents & Emergency Royal Victoria Hospital / Accident & Emergency

(as a service user),

I fractured my foot recently and sat in ED Antrim hospital for hours, where patient and family went back and forth to the door for a smoke - I sat in a smokey draught for hours.

Outside Antrim hospital's main entrance ... beside the great big no smoking signs ... are rows of patients & visitors puffing away, and staff smoking in the bus shelter by the main carpark. Outside Belfast's RVH the air is hazy with smoke, the entrance is blue with smoke.

I have raised the point again and again, but what is done is a token gesture. Antrim makes a polite announcement via a tannoy; the SE trust is getting a focus group together; the RVH ... nothing.

People smoke; I don't. Hospitals are places where people aren't feeling too well ... smoke doesn't help. There are signs ... people ignore them. Come to your own conclusions.

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Responses

Response from Lorraine McPeake, Smoking Cessation, Health and Wellbeing Team, NHSCT last month
Lorraine McPeake
Smoking Cessation, Health and Wellbeing Team,
NHSCT
Submitted on 15/05/2025 at 12:41
Published on Care Opinion at 13:43


Hello Kenneth,

My name is Lorraine and I work within the Health and Wellbeing Team of the Northern HSCT. I am sorry to hear about your foot injury and that you had to go to the hospital recently, I hope you are feeling better.

I am sorry that you did not have a good experience and that you encountered people smoking on the Trust grounds. This is not in line with our Trust policy. We have a Smoke free Policy in place and whilst we do not have any legislative powers to enforce this policy we certainly promote this policy and encourage people to refrain from smoking and promote smoke free air as far as possible on Trust grounds.

I will raise your recent experience with our Smoke free Steering Group. We will send out communication across our Trust Managers and staff reminding staff of the policy and their duty to adhere to this Smoke free policy and implement the policy with service users.

Thank you for your valuable feedback and we will continue to strive to implement this policy across our Trust sites.

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Response from Elizabeth Gilhooly, Administration, Health Promotion, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust last month
Elizabeth Gilhooly
Administration, Health Promotion,
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
Submitted on 15/05/2025 at 13:23
Published on Care Opinion at 13:44


Dear Kenneth AV,

My name is Elizabeth Gilhooly and I am the ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Stop Smoking Service and Smoke Free Lead here in the Belfast Trust.

I am grateful to you for taking the time to highlight your concerns regarding smoking at the Royal Hospital, and I am sorry that this practice has had an impact on you while visiting the Royal site. Smoking across our sites by patients, service users and staff is a most challenging issue for the Trust, which we take seriously, as we know this practice impacts on others and the environment.

Alongside a number of initiatives we use to promote a smoke free environment, the Trust employ a Stop Smoking Warden on the Royal Victoria Hospital site, to ask individuals to desist from smoking, raise awareness of the Trust’s Smoke Free policy, and signpost those who wish to stop smoking to services the Trust can provide to them. The Trust’s Smoke Free policy stipulates that ‘vaping, smoking or using e-cigarettes is not acceptable anywhere on Belfast Trust sites including buildings, entrances, exits, grounds, car parks and all vehicles’ and this policy applies to all who use our sites (including staff, patients, visitors and contractors).

The Belfast Trust Smoke Free Implementation Group regularly review the ongoing situation regarding non-compliance with the Trust’s Smoke Free Policy and take on board feedback from all those who engage with the Trust regarding this matter. We have established a team to conduct a Quality Improvement Project on embedding the Smoke Free policy, initially focusing on the RVH site. As part of this work, we recorded children’s voices reading Smoke Free messages and uploaded these messages to a Tannoy system outside the main entrance of the Royal. In addition, we also developed a ‘Walk with the Warden’ initiative where the Stop Smoking Warden engaged with Senior Managers and took them on a walk around the Royal site to demonstrate the issues faced on a daily basis and to encourage them to be ‘Smoke Free Champions’ and challenge anyone smoking on site.

The Smoking Order (2006) for Northern Ireland does not stretch to banning smoking on hospital grounds. Until there is a change in this, the Trust can only encourage and request that individuals support us to keep our environment smoke free. Meantime, the Trust will continue to promote a clean healthy environment on our sites.

I think this part relates more to formal complaints received:

I realise this response may not satisfy the issues that you raised and if you would like to discuss any aspect of this response you may contact the Complaints Department (Tel. No. 028 95047859) or email complaints@belfasttrust.hscni.net

Thank you again for your very valuable feedback on Care Opinion

Kind Regards

Elizabeth Gilhooly

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by KennethCountyAntrim (a service user)

Hello Elizabeth and Lorraine - BHSCT/NHSCT (Smoking within hospital grounds). Thank you both for your comprehensive and considered responses. Your responses got the thumbs down, not because of what you wrote, but because it seems that trusts are powerless to stop this antisocial practice.

I am a wee bit baffled however. At Antrim Area the signs do say "It is illegal to smoke within these grounds". If it is illegal how then can you not enforce the 2006 Order? I'm also baffled that both trusts took so long to decide who is responsible for stopping this antisocial habit ... it took several emails over several months to get the NHSCT to even respond to me. This is not just a minor irritation: smoking is killing people daily; it is costing the NHS millions.

You may not be able to do much to stop patients and visitors, but surely staff smoking in your grounds are in breach of their contracts. This admonitory approach is not what anyone wants, but there comes a time when those who thumb their nose at rules need a firmer hand.

KennethAV

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