Derriford: Patients have a room reserved for smoking

The hospital building would become smoke free next spring with the rest of the site following at a later date, according to proposals being considered by hospital managers.

Derriford staff can currently light up in an area on level seven of the hospital.

And on level six there is a windowless smoking room for patients and visitors.

Outside the building there is a smoking shelter near the main entrance.

Target dates

However people do not confine themselves to the shelter and smoking around the entrance is common.

Last year the government's chief medical officer recommended that all employers should introduce smoke-free workplaces, with the NHS leading the way.

He also said premises should set target dates this year by which they had become entirely smoke free.

A report to the trust which runs Derriford proposes the adoption of a policy by which it would become a smoking-free site.

It says becoming a smoke-free building by the first of April next year would be the first step.