A smoking ban will save the NHS money, experts say

They are the first in North Yorkshire to impose a blanket ban covering hospital grounds as well as buildings.

Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale Primary Care Trust and Scarborough and North East Yorks NHS Trust say the ban comes into force on 9 March - No Smoking Day.

The trusts' adviser Flis MacDonald said: "We don't accept smoking in other places - why should we in hospitals?"

Counselling offered

Ms MacDonald, an expert with the North Yorkshire Stop Smoking Service, said the trusts had been working on introducing the ban for over a year.

Staff have been consulted and offered help to quit smoking and patients will be offered counselling and nicotine replacement therapy where necessary.

The move follows official guidance from the Health Development Agency (HDA) last month which said the complete ban was a "gold standard" which NHS trusts should aim for.

HDA officials issued the guidance after the government's Public Health White Paper promised the health service would become smoke-free by the end of 2006.

Smoking rooms

However, under the white paper proposals hospitals are not required to stop smoking in grounds.

As yet, only a handful of trusts have introduced complete bans and 60% still have smoking rooms.

Ms MacDonald said: "Patients who smoke tend to need longer recovery times after anaesthetic, their wounds take longer to heal and they are more likely to end up in intensive care.

"So you can see there are real benefits to not smoking for both patients and the NHS in terms of both human and financial cost."