Shame of Royal hospital’s front door smokers

Dec 18 2007 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

THE medical director of the Royal Liverpool Hospital described the amount of smokers who loiter at its entrance as “terrible” last night.

Peter Williams added patients have verbally abused him and his colleagues when trying to move smokers on.

His comments at a health and wellbeing scrutiny committee meeting followed criticism by its chairman, Cllr Ron Gould, who expressed his disbelief that a hospital should experience such problems.

Cllr Gould said: “It is 2007, nearly 2008 and coming up to Capital of Culture. We have got the major A&E department at the Royal with people smoking outside, whilst there is a smoking ban that people respect in football grounds and pubs, notorious for misbehaviour.

“Why can’t you stop people smoking outside the doors? It is unbelievable.”

Dr Williams, divisional director of medicine at the hospital replied: “I completely agree with you... a lot of the clientele are drug users or have alcohol problems, you feel you can’t be too hard on them - they are still your patients. But I think we are too soft on them... it is terrible.

“It really is one of the most unattractive features.”

Mr Williams added that the level of abuse he has received when trying to move on smokers is “astonishing”.

Director of Communications at the Royal, Mike Barker, added the hospital is looking into the issue and is in the process of fitting new double doors, to stop smoke entering the building.

AT THE meeting, the Royal’s formal public consultation for the hospital site’s redevelopment was also passed.

But chair of the hospital trust’s Patient and Public Involvement forum, Maggie Andrews, said before the meeting she was surprised the trust had not included the numbers of beds that the new hospital would have.

“If this is supposed to be a consultation document I don't think anybody would be able to understand the tables with coloured blocks.

“A member of the public might ask “why don't you just tell it to me plainly”.”

She said she maintained that there would be cuts in the provision of beds for the elderly even though “it was vividly obvious there’s already no spare capacity in the system.”

However, representatives for the Royal said it would not be viable to include bed numbers, as they could change drastically in the coming years.

They added a more streamlined and easy to read version of the document would be created for the general public.

Yesterday the Daily Post revealed how councils in the region were paying hundreds of thousands in fines to hospitals because patients were unable to be cared for by social services in a new bed blocking scandal.

lizawilliams