Rules are for everyone!!

Idiot woman , but nearly as stupid as the ones with drips on pull along stands out in the wind. and. the snow having a drag

I used to do that, aggie!! I am so pleased I 'gave up' smoking at beginning of this year and should have done so years ago. What a terrible addiction it is.

I got to confess to being an ex-smoker too , I was so sick when expecting no 4 I couldn't smoke and managed to stay off them , that baby is 40+ now , she says she was my salvation

Well done wot - I wondered if you had managed it.
There's a similar little smoking club outside our local hospital (France). But most of them look undernourished and almost skeleton-like.
But I was nearly as bad at one time. Mis-spent youth.

I am an ex smoker (3 years now), but a few years ago I was admitted urgently to a hospital here in France. It was non smoking, and therefore I spent a whole night in ever increasing withdrawal symptoms. I was awake the whole of the night, and even though I was attached to a drip, I managed to find a lift and find my way outside for a cigarette as soon as it was light. I discharged myself the same day as I was not able to cope with sudden withdrawal. Hospitals are supposed to be places to be cured, and intense, unremitting stress from withdrawal symptoms does not help anyone to get well. I have every sympathy with the lady who needed a cigarette, and I don't suppose the OP had any idea of the anguish suffered by a smoker who is denied a cigarette. I don't suppose the lady mean to upset anyone, she probably just needed her cigarette.

I agree, Antonia, I'm an ex-smoker too.

It can be annoying to desperate smokers to be subjected to the 'coughing and fanning' display, even though I appreciate that some (like the OP) have genuine health problems. A bit of give and take, perhaps...?

I would never smoke in the vicinity of anyone else if I could help it, but sometimes there is no choice. People are free to move away if they feel too close to a smoker. I would certainly never 'round on' anyone who coughed and accuse them of putting it on, that would be incredibly rude.

Another ex smoker here. I've had more than usual hospital appointments recently and found it hard not to feel cross with smokers, who huddle outside in our dreadful weather, wearing the pj's, hooked up to drips but desperate for a fag. Whist in the cardiology/lung function waiting room I watched a couple who struggled to breathe, complain about no smoking in the waiting room because it means they'd to go out into the bad weather for a fag.

I know, smoking is addictive. I've been a lapsed non smoker three times over the years and I hope never to lapse again. The restrictions on smoking have been a great help.

On the contrary Antonia I understand the desperation of the smoker only too well. I smoked until I was 50 and smoking is part of the reason I have chest problems now. Thank god I stopped, I may not have been here if I hadn't. I also saw DH going through the torments of the damned when he was forced into going cold turkey after his heart attack. I hope I was a considerate smoker and I certainly wouldn't have smoked in a no smoking area. (Too law abiding!) The lady in question was within 2 minutes of the gates-she couid surely have waited until she was out of the grounds. It was her 'couldn't care less' attitude that got me, not any kind of desperation.

I can quite understand that it was her attitude that you found annoying Katek, I was putting across the point of view of a smoker. I think that hospitals should have addressed the problem of where people could smoke, without inconveniencing non smokers, instead of introducing a blanket ban that was always going to cause problems and lead to disputes. Look at the number of pubs that have now closed because their former clientele couldn't enjoy a drink and a smoke at the same time. Sledgehammer to crack a nut comes to mind.

Was the smoking ban introduced as a penance ? or a punishment ? or to protect the health of the staff .............

Nicotine is a deadly poison. People exposed to it die. If you choose to expose yourself , you should do so where it affects no one else. Hospitals are not the place for nicotine.

So many hospitals have the 'no smoking' rule within the grounds of the building, even though it might take you at least 10 minutes to walk from the entrance to your car, or the outside road.

I am not a smoker but don't understand why smokers can't smoke in the grounds, what is the logic behind it?

Because they are messy buggers and drop their fag ends where they stand. I was married to one and used to feel the blood pressure rise when an dead cigar was thrown away.

I have to add that I've only ever met one person who had a portable ashtray which they carried around.

It is now a year since I last had a cigarette.

I still use a vape thing, and could happily mug any of the students smoking outside for a "proper" cigarette!

I even have dreams about smoking and cigarettes, I could go back to it tomorrow, but I won't.

Are you saying that smokers can't wait 10 minutes for a fag Ana? Surely that's not too long a wait? Just looked up some stats-our area had 5000 hospital admissions last year for smoking related issues at a cost of £46 million. 1000 of these admissions resulted in deaths. Surely if we're trying to improve the health of the population the NHS has to lead from the front?

Why on earth would the medical profession, who see the end result of nicotine addiction, and watch people die painful and often long drawn out deaths encourage it anywhere on the premises?

Nicotine itself is not the killer in cigarettes, it is the tar and other carciogenics. This is why millions of ex smokers, like myself, have been able to quit smoking by changing to an e-cig. We get the nicotine fix without the carciogenics.
I am not saying that the medical profession should encourage smoking, only that they should take human nature into account, and not force people into a situation where they are already ill and feeling terrible, and then put them through the agony of withdrawal symptoms on top of that. They should at least allow them to smoke somewhere, as stress itself is a huge factor in illness. To deliberately add to stress is counter productive.

My father and mother in law died from the affects of smoking. If it meant that they had to suffer stress whilst stopping smoking, but had been given extra years of life I know exactly what I would have chosen for them.
What a chance too to stop!! I say bring it on.

Phoenix, I find it interesting that you still crave a 'real' cigarette. For myself, I have no wish to go back to smoking and I suspect that if I were to try one I would find it horrible. I have been on 18 nicotine for 3 years now and have only just this week reduced it to 12. My aim is to eventually get to zero. If, but whether I will achieve that I'm not sure. For me, I am just so pleased to have given up the analogues.

I don't know what other areas do, but our hospital offers help with smoking cessation for inpatients and issues free nicotine patches. It has to be all or nothing, you can't say it's acceptable to smoke when you're already ill. Stress of not smoking isn't going to kill you-smoking can.

My father smoked since he was 14 and eventually died from COPD. I have suffered from chronic lung disease since I was 21, partly as a result of living in a smoked filled home and being subjected to the poisonous fumes on a daily basis. Even after I spent six weeks in intensive care with lung problems, he continued to smoke in front of me. Either he didn't understand the consequences or was so addicted he couldn't give up, despite the fact he was dying. No-one should be exposed to this poison and certainly not outside a hospital. It is totally selfish. I have had to pass people sneaking a sly fag on the way to a respiratory clinic and had to use my inhaler as a result.