The hospital says it has a new smoke free policy

A dozen shelters, costing �5,000 each, have been put in place in the grounds of the Selly Oak and Queen Elizabeth Hospitals in Birmingham. One is just 10 yards from a cancer unit.

The University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust said the new shelters - fitted with seats and ashtrays - are part of the trust's new smoke-free policy aimed at helping people stop smoking.

A spokeswoman for the trust said the smoke free policy had been introduced on 1 January and the long-term aim was to make both hospital buildings and their grounds smoke-free zones.

Special councillors

However she added the trust needed to be "realistic" if it wanted to achieve this goal and had to introduce the new policy in stages.

It's a shame the hospital had to spend money on the shelters and not elsewhere but they had to do that Paul Hooper, Ash

"The provision of smoking shelters is part of our approach to drive out smoking from buildings and entrances," she said.

"There has to be somewhere for people who smoke to go. If not, they will congregate outside the entrance to the hospitals.

"We have a new hospital being built as part of a private finance initiative which will be open in 2008 and that will be a completely smoke-zone area."

She said as well as the shelters, the trust offers staff and patients the chance to take part in smoking cessation sessions, provides special councillors and free nicotine replacement therapy.

Anti-smoking group Ash (Action on Smoking and Health) said the hospital was taking a step in the right direction.

The group's Paul Hooper told BBC News Online: "It's a shame the hospital had to spend money on the shelters and not elsewhere but they had to do that.

"The shelters will help prevent people being affected by passive smoking and if they have a shelter near the cancer treatment centre, it may unnerve smokers and might encourage them to stop smoking."