At last.
For far too long, patients and visitors have had to wade through a fug of smoke and an unsightly tide of cigarette butts at the entrances to Glasgow's hospitals. As anyone who has visited a major hospital will know, smokers are often found inhabiting the entrances like an unsuitable welcoming committee, silently puffing out fumes which are then inhaled by those heading in or out. What could be more emblematic of the deep-rooted nature of Glaswegians' unimpressive health record than the sight of hospital staff and those undergoing treatment coming outside in all weathers to have their fix of nicotine?
Well, no longer. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) has launched a crackdown on smoking within hospital grounds. Hospital entrance ways have been wreathed in smoke for years, but this has always been anomalous, given that smoking is not permitted inside the buildings. Why has it been tolerated until now, especially given how many patients have smoking-related diseases? Perhaps because of an unwillingness on the part of hospital authorities to police a habit that is, after all, legal; perhaps due to a view that it is distressing enough for patients to be receiving treatment in hospital without being forced to stop smoking; or perhaps simply because preventing it has seemed unworkable.
Whatever the reasons, this crackdown is welcome and another sign that attitudes towards smoking are changing on a fundamental level. Since the ban on smoking indoors in public places was brought in back in 2006, smoking anywhere others could be affected has come to be seen as antisocial, including outside, and the new posters looming over would-be smokers outside Glasgow's acute hospitals will reflect that. They do not pull their punches. One features a photograph of a newborn baby and declares that "smoke moves through windows, air ducts, cracks and lift shafts to contaminate our wards". The health board clearly mean business.
Smokers attending or visiting Glasgow's hospitals will from now on have a choice. Either they refrain from smoking and perhaps use the hiatus as an opportunity to try and quit altogether, with the help of NHS smoking cessation services – as the health board hopes – or they merely leave hospital grounds to top up on nicotine. This raises the prospect of patients in their dressing gowns standing huddled under umbrellas on pavements by busy roads having a smoke.
So be it. Hospital authorities must concentrate on enforcing the no smoking rule within hospital grounds, which they intend to do using smoke-free wardens to stop transgressors.
The hope now must be that this zero tolerance approach adds momentum to the sea change in attitudes towards smoking that is taking place. Cigarette smoking, once an unquestioned part of Scottish life, is being ever more marginalised as a lifestyle choice. The percentage of Scots who smoke is falling and now stands at around 23%. The Scottish Government wants fewer than 5% of Scots to smoke in 20 years' time. Changes like this can only help.
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