SMOKING is to be banned anywhere on the grounds of all three major hospitals in Worcestershire from June.

Today’s (Wednesday) No Smoking Day marks 99 days until Worcester Royal Hospital, Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital become entirely smoke-free on Wednesday, June 17.

Staff were banned from smoking on hospital grounds last year, but this is now due to be extended to patients and visitors.

Director of human resources at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust Denise Harnin said the organisation had been planning to become completely smoke-free for some time.

“Our patients are already in hospital because they are acutely ill and smoking is known to make a lot of these conditions even worse,” she said.

“By promoting healthier choices to our patients and offering them support to stop we can help them quit smoking and improve their overall quality of life.

“Being faced with a crowd of smokers on your way into hospital isn’t a nice way to start your experience of the great care and services we provide.

“By banning smoking from our sites, patients and visitors will get to experience a more pleasant start to their treatment and recovery.”

Smoking shelters will be removed from the three hospital’s sites in the lead-up to June.

The Alex’s stop smoking advisor Mary Cornford-Hill said it generally takes about 12 weeks to overcome nicotine addiction, so now was the ideal time to get advice on kicking the habit ahead of June’s ban.

“With the help of an NHS stop smoking advisor you are four times more likely to quit,” she said.

For advice on stopping smoking call 01562 513 225.