WARDENS are to patrol the grounds of hospitals in Scotland's biggest health-board area in the latest bid to crack down on smoking.

Patrols will make sure smokers are kept away from entrances to Glasgow Royal Infirmary as part of the new hard-hitting scheme.

A no-smoking zone has been created at the Alexandra Parade entrance to the hospital, marked out on the ground with thick red lines and imposing signs warning people that lighting up is forbidden.

It forms part of the "Smoking on hospital grounds – we're all sick of it" campaign which will be rolled out to 10 other hospitals in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) area.

Visitors, patients and staff who smoke outside hospital entrances will now be faced with warning signs, powerful images of sick people as well as the 'smoke-free wardens', who will usher smokers away from the front of the hospitals and encourage smoking patients to stub out and head back into the wards, where they can get help to quit their habit.

Dr Linda de Caestecker, NHS GGC director of public health, said she would support moves to make it illegal to light up on hospital grounds.

She said: "There is a national policy for every hospital to be smoke-free by 2015 but it is not yet supported by legislation. If there was, people could be fined."

She added: "Passive smoke causes lung cancer, respiratory conditions and heart disease – when the smoking ban came into force there was a large reduction in the number of people suffering heart attacks.

"To be exposed to these dangers on your way into a hospital is completely unacceptable."

Consultant respiratory physician Joris Van Der Horst, who is based at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, said he is forced to hold his breath as he walks through clouds of cigarette smoke on his way into the hospital.

He said patients – including those with cancer – who are treated in hospital but continue to smoke outside it are a source of frustration for medical staff.

Dr Van Der Horst said: "There is evidence to suggest that passive smoking causes more harm than active smoking – the fumes are more toxic. The youngest person I have treated for lung cancer while based at Glasgow Royal Infirmary was aged just 23."

Dr Mustafa Kapasi, a former GP who sits on the NHS GGC board, said cigarette smoke is being blown into hospitals and medical staff and visitors are unwittingly tramping discarded cigarette butts onto hospital wards.

He said: "This campaign is not about denying someone the right to smoke. All we are asking is that they do not do further harm to our patients and other non-smoking visitors. The smoke is blown into our hospitals by the wind and is already detrimental to our sick patients.

"Our hospital and healthcare centre entrances are meant to be clean and hygienic but instead are littered with cigarette butts and some of this is carried into hospital wards on the soles of shoes."

Dr Mustafa, who worked in Greenock Health Centre for 20 years, has personal experience of the effects of second-hand smoke, having been left with asthma after sharing a flat with a chain-smoker.

He added: "There are innumerable effects of passive smoking on almost every system in the body.

"In particular I am concerned about the harm it does to children – our future generation.

"Do we want our children to be subjected to increased incidence of sudden infant death syndrome, asthma, bronchiolitis, Crohn's disease, developmental delays, learning difficulties and middle-ear infections?"

He added: "What is the point of having a ban on smoking inside a hospital when smoke is being inhaled on the way in?

"Non-smokers are being forced into smoking and the very last place in the world this should be happening is on a healthcare site."