Smoking Double Standards

[Bad Manners]

I had to attend hospital again today and find it odd that dispite the non smoking policy there are several people standing at the only entrance to wick hospital smoking. causing anyone entering the building to have to go through the fog of smoke.
the double standards come in as all the staff who smoke have to go outside the hospital premises as they are not allowed to moke in the car park etc. So why one rule for them and another for the public surley it must be the same for all No smoking within hospital premises.
Anyone else have a view.

[changilass]

Staff can be reprimanded or sacked, I doubt that the police would come out every 5 mins to deal with patients smoking at the entrance.

[davie]

I am sure that the rules say Highland Health Board premises are Non-Smoking for all.
As Changilass pointed out policing this rule is the problem. Over time the smoking public will decrease in number and the problem will go away (but dont hold your breath). Joke apart it must be annoying for a non-smoker to get an involuntary lungful of second hand smoke. As a non smoker of 8 weeks standing I can identify with both sides of the scenario.

[Shabbychic]

I don't think it is so much double standards but more having a totally unrealistic policy. You state that the staff must go off the premises and are not allowed to smoke in the car park and yet the patients smoke outside the door. Well the staff probably have outdoor clothes and shoes on and the patients are in jim-jams and slippers. It may cause a stir if suddenly folks were walking up and down the streets of Wick in their nightclothes.:eek:

More to the point, giving up smoking can be hard to do, and the smoker must be in the right frame of mind to do this. So suddenly they have to go into hospital and are expected to give up smoking altogether at the drop of a hat, during what will probably be a very stressful time. If smoking was so easy to quit, there would be no need for Nicotine Replacement Therapy or all the NHS helplines and support groups.

Here are just a couple of points the NHS states on a Stop Smoking website:-

It can take up to three months to become a non-smoker.

It is important that you stop smoking because you want to.

Do not expect giving up smoking to be easy.

So I understand the anti-smoking brigade expect all smokers to obey the law and do what they're told, but perhaps they should put themselves in the shoes of a smoker and realise that many will stop smoking given time. Even the ex-smokers (who usually have the lowest tolerance of smokers) must realise, most of them didn't just give up immediately because they were told to.

[Bazeye]

I know its against the law but whats wrong with people smokng in, say for instance, the hospital car park, where there is nobody about? Theres probably a lot more pollution being emitted from exhausts than folk smoking. Oh I forgot, its because the Government says so. Just one more example of peoples freedom being slowly taken away from them. We have smoking shelters at work which are at least 25m from the nearest building and when we get a bit of sunshine folk sit outside these shelters on a wall but told to get back in the shelter by any jobsworth that happens to notice. The sky is a lot bigger than any smoking shelter.

[Bad Manners]

I am not against smoking each to there own it is the fact for non smokers have to pass through all the smokers at the door. i understand it is not easy to stop. but could their not be a designated area for these people in that way all are catered for

[Shabbychic]

I am not against smoking each to there own it is the fact for non smokers have to pass through all the smokers at the door. i understand it is not easy to stop. but could their not be a designated area for these people in that way all are catered for

Exactly. There should be a designated area, but the powers that be are so up their own backsides in trying to be PC, they fail to see they are contradicting themselves. On the one hand smokers must quit immediately and on the other they are offering help as they realise it can be difficult to stop.

I myself think it is not only unsightly to see a crowd of smokers huddled round a door, it is also degrading that adults have to resort to this type of behaviour.

[Bazeye]

And if smoking was banned, I wonder where the Government would get their extra revenue from?

[George Brims]

Here in sunny (actually it's pouring today) California, pub smokers just have to go outside, so there's a crowd/cloud to pass on the way in. At our local senior center, however, the rule is 60 feet from the door. Passing by one day I heard two owld mannies complaining bitterly about having to be out in the rain when there was a covered entrance.

[Rheghead]

Why would anyone want to degrade themselves outside a hospital entrance just to puff on a cigarette? If anyone can't see the shame in that then the weed truly has a hold on the weak-willed.:lol:

[golach]

And if smoking was banned, I wonder where the Government would get their extra revenue from?
If Smoking was banned, the Government, would not have to pour millions of pounds into the NHS, so would save money that way, I was a heavy smoker I would ban it!!

[George Brims]

Why would anyone want to degrade themselves outside a hospital entrance just to puff on a cigarette? If anyone can't see the shame in that then the weed truly has a hold on the weak-willed.:lol:
A couple of years ago I visited my aunt in a hospital in Newcastle. There were two blokes outside smoking with portable oxygen tanks by their side (turned off, fortunately). It is beyond amazing the hold that stuff gets on people. I am always dubious when people say it is more addictive than heroin, but that seems to confirm it.