SMOKING kills. And passive smoking kills.

The facts could not be any clearer, so it’s perfectly logical that the chief executive of Public Health England wants every NHS Trust to ensure they take action to implement the Government’s directive putting a blanket ban on tobacco products across all hospital sites.

Given that treating smoking-related ill health costs the NHS £223m a year regionally, it’s obvious that reducing smoking levels needs to be given the highest priority.

However, we need to have great sympathy with the Trusts who find it exceptionally difficult to impose the ban because of the nature of the institutions they are running.

There are many people who need to stay in hospitals or visit patients who are addicted to cigarettes and there are, for instance, always going to be people suffering stress from circumstances such as bad news about their health or experiencing bereavements who turn to smoking as a prop.

Therefore, it seems unlikely that Trusts will be able to enforce a ban that’s 100 per cent successful even though it may be highly desirable. It’s very likely that patients and visitors will flout the policy unless it’s imple-mented in a draconian and even forceful way.

So, sadly, it seems the Trusts have little choice other than to accept that it’s a damage limitation exercise and provide facilities for those who are determined not to help themselves.

As long as these facilities are away from people who don’t wish to smoke, it seems that the Trusts are in a predicament where they must try to make the best of a bad job.