Smoking on NHS sites- it is STILL happening!!









  2. Provision of advice regarding medication which helps manage nicotine withdrawal









Bad weather makes smoking worse

Passive smoking what does it mean

The NHS long term plan

Parking is not the only issue at the RIE


Parking is not the only issue at the RIE

In the press today and on social media there is a lot of energy being focused on the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh and its issue with parking. Ever since I have worked at the RIE there has always been an issue with parking. There has never been enough parking for the number of staff let alone patients or visitors.

This summer the new Sick Kids hospital is moving out to the RIE site as well as DCN. Now the new departments have been built on one of the previous car parks and there has been no replacement car parks being put in place.

There is up roar about this especially as staff have to pay to park. You can apply for a permit which costs £25 a month but these are now in short supply and to qualify for a permit you need to meet certain criteria. I remember when I was applying for my permit first off having a blue disabled parking badge did not move me up the line I still had to wait. I did eventually get a permit and was able to get a permit for a car park close to the hospital because of my blue badge but this to me is almost a waste of time because the welfare of the people working there is not addressed or prioritised.

For me and many others one of the biggest issues at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh is the smoking issue. There was a supposed smoking ban on NHS Lothian sites but what it seems to have done is nothing more than encourage people to smoke right outside the hospital doors. I remember just after the smoking ban came in I was working a night shift and halfway through hand over I had to get taken to A&E due to an asthma attack as a direct result of making my way into the hospital from my car. Sadly this was not the only occasion this occurred. There have been at least 6 occurrences where me getting from my car in the car park to the front door have resulted in me being exposed to people smoking where they should not be and ending up requiring hospital treatment and sometimes needing to go to intensive care.

Just now I am on a career break focusing on research but I am very concerned about going back to work next year. I will need to reapply for my permit but also if I don’t have a permit I will need to either pay for parking which is not always guaranteed, or risk getting public transport which could put my life at risk. I worry that will my hard work this year to get my health better be then set backwards by the risks that are involved in just getting into the hospital.

I have tried to speak to anyone who will listen about the smoking issue which is particularly bad at the Royal Infirmary but it seems to fall on deaf ears. The really shocking thing is that an area which is probably the worst for the number of people smoking is right below the respiratory ward and not even that is doing anything to get the smokers moved. I am not against people smoking- it is their choice if they want to end up giving themselves COPD and a self inflicted breathing condition but I am against them inflicting others to their bad habit. I didnt do anything to cause my lungs to get like this they are just like that so I do not expect to have them deteriorate as a direct consequence of someone breaking the law and smoking where they should not be working.

The most shocking bit about it is that the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh are happy to patrol the car parks and put tickets on cars which are parked in the wrong place but turn a blind eye to people smoking. I tell you a car parked in the wrong place does a lot less harm than people smoking.

When it comes to April 2020 I will need to think about wether it is worth the risk  to come back to work if the smoking issue is not addressed.

It is a sorry state of affairs when healthcare workers are questioning wether they continue in the career or where they are working because there is not adequate provision to support them.


The NHS Long Term Plan


No one can have missed the news recently about the NHS Long Term Plan for NHS England. Even those of us not living in England can’t miss it!!! I know I live in Scotland so it does not impact me directly but I am pretty sure the Scottish Government will take on a lot of the plans for the Scottish Health Service that are talked about in the NHS Long Term Plan.

The biggest thing that I have noticed in the news, on social media from news agencies is surrounding smoking and the help that is going to be given to people who smoke that are admitted to hospital. Any time I see anything about the plan this is what I see and it just angers me so much. I know I am not alone either as have spoken to many people who are in a similar position to me with their lungs that are frustrated and angry about it to. For me what it me most was that along with the national news agencies and NHS health boards tweeting about it, my own local health board posted (once again) about how they were going to give smoking cessation help and advice to patients admitted to hospital.


I know this is a very good step etc and that people who smoke should be offered help to stop however on a daily basis just to get into work I run a gauntlet to try and avoid breathing in any smoke. The NHS made a huge deal about how their sites were to be no smoking sites and that smoking is banned on their sites yet nothing is done to enforce this. They have signs everywhere yet those who smoke just stand by them and light up. Some don’t even wait till they clear the door before they light up. This is not unique to me and the hospital I work in. I regularly see on different forums asthmatics saying they had to go to hospital but just trying to get into the hospital left them in a worse off state than they were when they arrived in the car park etc because of all the smokers they had to pass.

Until you have put up the fight of your life just to get a breath in you cant understand what it is like. It is one thing when you may have been a bit silly and done something stupid which provokes an asthma attack but when you have done nothing other than try and get into work and you end up in intensive care it can leave you feeling really angry and bitter.

What I would love to see and so many would love to see is the smoking ban being enforced or at least a shelter to provide those who smoke a place to go and then leave areas such as the main doors to the hospital as a safe zone. Also when there are the groups of people congregating outside the doors of the hospital- many of whom are patients why are the smoking cessation nurses not down there encouraging them to not smoke or at least smoke in an area which won’t risk killing people.

What is worse is that the main doors to the hospital I work in which are always flanked by people smoking, are over looked by 3 of the four bedded bays in the respiratory ward so during sweltering summer days you cant have the window open because you end up with a room full of seconds hand smoke.

I am not alone in how I feel and what I think which is why I am writing this. I am at a total loss as to what to do because everywhere I try and get the issue addressed cant give me any answers. Is it going to take someone dying from an asthma attack as a direct consequence of people smoking outside hospital doors for action to be taken?? I have got in touch with ASH, Unison, local MP none of whom could give me an answer or willing to take action.

My working hours are 9am to 3:15pm, I have a blue badge due to the severity of my asthma so can park close to the hospital however I have had to start arriving earlier and earlier so I can have the time to wait till the doors are clear of people smoking and then take my chance. This time is different each day but it shouldn’t need to be done. There is then the reverse when it comes to leaving work however I tend to end up just trying to get out and get to my car, once in the safety of my car I can have some nebulisers to alleviate the effects the smoke has had on my lungs. I just wish those who smoke understood what they were doing to others.

It is so hard to see so many struggle. I have read how people feel like turning back and missing their hospital clinic appointments because of people smoking at the doors and the risk this poses to their health. This should never be a choice that someone has to make.

It would be great if others could share this and try and get change to happen.

If the NHS are committed to help people stop smoking, then they need to be down there with those who are smoking not up in offices making plans. Smoke is not just effecting those smoking but also others around them and not only those with lung disease either.

Please lets try and get things changed. I don’t want to risk losing my job (which could be a real possibility) because I have once again ended up in the intensive care unit as a result of people smoking where they should not be smoking.


Returning to work in a fog of smoke.

I have been back at work now on a phased return and it is going fairly well except for one part. When my chest feels tight I do find it a bit of a struggle to get from the car park to the hospital. The staff car park is the furthest out from the hospital and includes crossing the road that circles the hospital. It is not to far only about 400m probably but when your chest is tight it feels like a marathon.

To compound this staff seem incapable of waiting until they are either in their car or off the hospital site before they light up they cigarette and go on their way. I see them walking out the hospital cigarette and lighter in hand before they are even out the building- it is almost like you can see them itching to light it which they do as soon as they are out the building. It appears that they cannot survive without their nicotine that they don’t have a care for who is around them all they are focused on is lighting up and getting their fix not worrying about the effect they have on others as long as their cravings are satisfied.

I guess I am more sensitive to triggers now than I ever was before because of the attacks I have had since the start of the year- they terrified me and still haunt me. My lungs are still twitchy so any trigger will make me feel tight and wheezy. When I was off sick I longed to go back to work to have a purpose to the day and get back to the job I love but how can I do the job I love when getting into work I can only describe as running the gauntlet not knowing what I am going to have to go through just to get from my car and into safety of the hospital. This really hit me yesterday when I had 3 people in front of me smoking as I left the hospital to get to my car. I had to wait outside in the cold until they had moved far enough away that their smoke had dissipated and was no longer a threat. To me smoke is as much of a threat as a dangerous patient if not worse. You can’t call security for help from someone smoking but you can for a dangerous patient. I don’t mean to trivialise a dangerous patient but to me right now smoke is more of a danger to me than anything else. I don’t want an attack triggered- the fear of another asthma attack like I had grips me so hard I can’t shake it off.

I know you can’t go around dictating what people do but what I have huge difficulties with is that the hospital is meant to be a no smoking zone and there are signs everywhere which are just disregarded and no notice is taken of them. Many of the people I see out smoking are nurses. The same caring compassionate profession that I am in yet they really don’t actually care for those around them. There is nothing worse than being a patient and having a nurse come off their break smelling of smoke and you are sitting in a respiratory ward and could quite easily be set off just by the smoke that is lingering in their hair or on their clothes.

I think my issue that I have trouble accepting is that I did not choose to have my lungs like this. I am trying to do all I can to stay well and achieve what I want to do but I see all these people who choose to smoke and are choosing to do damage to their lungs and other peoples lungs. I do remember once I was subject to one persons smoke which caused me to have an asthma attack and go to hospital- the nurse’s smoke that caused the asthma attack was the nurse who ended up looking after me. I found this really hard.

I have rambled a little bit here but I am just so frustrated that by trying to work and get to work I am risking my own health to get inside the building. I have asked to move carpark to one that is closer so that the gauntlet I have to run is shorter and therefore the potential risk is much less but this is yet to happen and Im not sure if it will happen. It is a very small request but it does make me think what is the point of pushing myself to work when those around don’t want to try and help. To put it bluntly if those who smoke think about those around them and perhaps smoke only where they are meant to they would not effect other people, they would reduce the number of people who end up in hospital and therefore reduce their work load making their life easier.

This is a little bit off the deep end but its how I feel.

Venting frustrations…..again

Everything seems to be a bit negative just now and I really don’t like it but I do find writing down things that bother me cathartic and really help get them out my head and mulling over them. It is often things I won’t speak to anyone about as I think people would be bored of hearing me moan but also they really have absolutely no understanding of what it feels like sometimes.

My biggest issue I have with my asthma is that there is nothing I can say caused it to get bad. I have not always been a perfect patient and not always taken medication as and when I should (I learnt my lesson with that and now keep to a strict regime) but I desperately wish there was a cause for it to have got so bad. No matter how much I try I really cannot come to terms with the fact that there was nothing that I could really do to prevent this. It just happened.


I am hugely anti smoking yet so many of my family smoke and they don’t get that they take their breathing for granted. They have all seen me have asthma attacks yet they still smoke. They also don’t think when they light up and leave a door open that it will bother me, they don’t think that the smoke stays on their clothes can have an effect on my breathing, they just don’t think because they take their ability to breathe for granted. If I make a fuss that they have lit a cigarette around me and I get a face full of smoke they get all annoyed and tell me to go away, I am the one that ends up moving and having to stop what I am doing to accommodate them when they are inflicting something I a) chose not to do and b) something that negatively affects me. I would never wish my asthma on anyone but sometimes I would love for them to feel what it is like for me to breath on a daily basis but also when I am near smoke of any kind. It is horrible and to know that this is your family members that are doing this is awful and they just don’t see it. Years down the line they will have damage to their lungs and suffer the consequences of it but weirdly in my mind at least they have a reason for having bad lungs. It was what they chose to do to themselves so they need to live with the consequences of it.


For me I don’t have that reason or any reason. I have just bad asthma that wants to control my life and requires medication several times a day to keep it in check and be able to breathe adequately.

This now is a total moan- even more than what I have just written but those that smoke and then they get a cough or cold hey feel their life has fallen in. Someone said to me that so and so was not well and had an awful cough. I turned round and replied that if they chose to stop smoking or smoked less Im sure they wouldn’t feel so unwell or have such a bad cough to which I was told I was not being very sympathetic or supportive. But hello….they chose to do it. How can I be supportive or sympathetic to someone who will most likely not give two hoots about lighting up a cigarette and won’t care who is around and who it is going to bother.

I really hate it if you can’t guess. It seems to be more prominent now as well. Everywhere you go there will be someone smoking in a 5m radius of you. Its disgusting but god forbid you make a fuss. I remember once needing to get into a restaurant but a man was smoking in the doorway. When I asked him to move so I could get through avoiding the smoke I got a whole heap of dogs abuse for it. Smokers think it is their right to be where they want and smoke without giving a care to anyone else.

This brings me onto the ridiculous idea of having no smoking on NHS sites. I still can’t believe that I really don’t agree with it and wish they would reinstate smoking. Now I can’t walk around the hospital grounds without coming across someone hiding behind a corner trying to be out of site smoking because they are too lazy to go off site. At least before when there was the smoking shelters you could avoid them but now it seems like no where is safe. It makes even getting from my car and into the hospital more hazardous than it was before.



I am such a grump but if you hadn’t guessed smoking it really getting to me just now and I want to scream at people who smoke. I would love them to do a day in my shoes and Im not even that bad compared to many people. I should be lucky I have the health I have as so many have it worse than I do but just now I can’t let it drop and I keep getting so wound up by it. I am hoping that by writing it down and getting it off my chest then I will feel better for it.

Fingers crossed!