Smoking on hospital sites.

Back in April last year I wrote a post about NHS sites going smoke free and if this was some big April fool! The original post can be found here:http://wp.me/p499Ff-mh

It is over a year now and the issue seems to be worse than ever. It feels like people are smoking everywhere. The more you scowl the worst it becomes. They all seem to feel they have a right to stand in the doorway and smoke making it impassible for those with breathing problems. As a result I already have to walk around to the back of the hospital to a patient free area to get in a door where people don’t smoke outside. They don’t smoke outside because it is next to the moturary. I recently found out that this entrance is going to be shut off so I need to go and find another entrance I can use which is not either of the main ones. My boss suggested going in through A and E but last time I have to take someone there, there was a group of people also smoking outside it. For me when I go to A and E I have never experienced this as tend to go in through Resus so don’t go in the front door. When going into work I can’t go and enter via resus although I may end up doing that by trying to access other entrances.

I guess unless you know what it feels like to suffocate and not able to breath you won’t have any idea of what smoke can do to some people. It really is a matter of life and death. It put me in intensive care in January and that was just walking past people smoking. Its horrible.

Im sure if I decided to go around with a hose because I wanted to be soaking wet the whole time the smokers would have issue if they then also got wet in the process of me doing what I wanted to do. They don’t get it. They are so fixed on their own habit and making sure they are ok without thinking about those who are being effected by it.

I fid it particularly hard- not so much now as I don’t work on a ward but when I was looking after people who smoked I would often get chesty and have to take it slow much to the patients annoyance. I joked with my boss that I would take photos of all those smoking outside the doors and no smoking signs. I would send them in to the papers. But I reckon if I did that I would be fired instead I just have to keep going until either I can’t take it anymore and give up working at the hospital and become a hermit or I have manage to annoy those in the cross party group enough for the MSP’s to enforce stronger action!

I needed to post this again just now because once again my chest was aggravated by smoke!!! I long for a day when breathing is easy and smoke is no issue.