Patients and staff must walk to the gates to smoke

The loudspeakers are being used to tell people they cannot smoke anywhere on the Queen's Medical Centre (QMC) site.

Anyone wanting to light up has to go to the gates of the hospital grounds on Derby Road regardless of their medical condition, officials said.

Managers have taken the step ahead of new legislation to make the whole of the NHS smoke free by January 2007.

Smoke free

Phil Walmsley, assistant director of Nursing at the QMC said: "We have increased security staff for the first couple of weeks so they can get around and ask people to stop smoking.

"It is a difficult phase because obviously it is a new policy and it won't be popular with a small group of people, particularly smokers.

"It would be nice to think people would automatically recognise that in a hospital environment smoking is not really seen as permissible - we all recognise the dangers of passive smoking."

Patients told BBC news they found the situation confusing, as some patients and visitors were being asked to move on if they were smoking but others were not.

Ashtrays are also still in place at the hospital's entrance.

One patient who smoked said: "I don't see why we should walk up Derby Road when there's people smoking and they're not moving them on.

"I think it's rubbish as long as you're not smoking in the main entrance there - I mean it does waft in the building."

The ban was introduced on 1 January.