Chairman Joe Butterfield said, when contacted, he had decided the matter needed to go before the board, overriding a senior mental health staff member who last month told the Otago Daily Times a ban would be implemented.
Staff planned to remove an exemption on mental health wards after the High Court, last month at Auckland, dismissed a challenge to Waitemata District Health Board's smoking ban in locked-in facilities.
Mr Butterfield, however, was sympathetic to the staff view, saying the matter only had to be considered at governance level because the board stepped in three years ago.
''While it is an operational issue, it has to come back to the board, because the board has already made a decision [in 2010].
''If that previous board decision had not been made, then I would agree [with staff] ... that it is an operational decision which needn't come to the board.''
Three years ago, staff tried to stop locked-in patients from smoking in a pilot scheme at Wakari Hospital that was halted. An application to the board, soon after the pilot scheme, to ban smoking throughout mental health wards was turned down.
The main opponent in 2010, board member Richard Thomson, seems likely to resist the new attempt when it comes before the board again next month.
Mr Thomson believes smoking bans in locked-in facilities are akin to forced treatment, and last month said staff were not authorised to lift the exemption.
• The decision to quit smoking must remain a personal one, Dunedin mental health consumer group Incite says.
Incite spokesman Mike McAlevey said the group had been asked by Southern District Health Board staff to help implement a ban, but it remained opposed to that approach.
''A positive rather than a punitive approach, making the wards places where people are well occupied, rather than simply bored, would be more likely to result in contented people who smoke less.''
The group wants the board to retain the position reached three years ago when it decided to exempt those detained under the Mental Health Act.
''Incite remains concerned about the level of support that will be available to smokers who are detained under the Mental Health Act. It will not be sufficient just to confiscate cigarettes and hand out nicotine patches,'' Mr McAlevey said.
The group did not support smoking, and was concerned about the poor physical health of mental health service patients.
The Dunedin wards had large outside areas where people could smoke without endangering the health of staff, visitors, or other patients, he said.
