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Richard Thomson.
Declaring smoke-free footpaths around Dunedin Hospital is
a ridiculous idea which would not solve the issues around
smoking near hospital entrances, Richard Thomson says.
The motivation which drove seriously ill people out of their
hospital beds, dragging their intravenous drips behind them
so they could go outside for a cigarette, was not going to be
stopped by making footpaths smoke-free any more than making
the hospital smoke-free did, he told yesterday's board
meeting.
He was commenting on a brief report from chief executive
Brian Rousseau (who was absent), advising that the
possibility of designating smoke-free footpaths surrounding
the hospital had been raised with the Dunedin City Council.
An appropriate solution had to be found for people seriously
addicted to nicotine, he said.
He supported the public health view on smoking and the work
being done to help hospital patients quit the habit, and
accepted it was not fair for the rest of the population to
run the gauntlet of those smoking outside the building.
However, a footpath smoking ban was an ideological idea which
would not work, he said.
"It's stupid."
Chief operating officer Vivian Blake accepted the front
entrance was not " a nice gauntlet" to run and the idea of
discussing a footpath ban had been seen as a pragmatic first
step towards a solution to the problem.
Board member Peter Barron, who has repeatedly expressed
concern that smokers were being stigmatised in a way which
would not be tolerated for other addicts, said he was running
out of patience on the issue and did not want to have to walk
into another board meeting past smoking patients at the
hospital entrance.
The board asked that an urgent solution be found, with Mr
Barron saying he wanted it before Christmas.
