By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Casey Hospital, like every Victorian hospital, seems caught in a legal “grey zone” unable to enforce a four-metre smoking ban outside its entrances.
As a regular visitor in recent weeks, ‘David’ told Star News there were non-complying smokers nearly every time he’d attended the hospital.
He requested a smoker to obey the ban and she laughed in his face, he says.
“Every time we went to the hospital – which was over 20 times – there’s someone smoking at the entrance.
“A staff member told me to write to the newspapers about it.
“Why don’t they put up signs saying there’s on-the-spot fines?”
‘David’ worries about the patients – including those with respiratory problems – who are wheeled through the entrances.
“Babies are being brought in and out of the entrances – and people are still smoking.
“They are so selfish. They don’t give a crap.”
Concerns have been raised about the safety of patients and medical staff requesting smokers to comply since a surgeon died outside Box Hill Hospital in May 2017.
A man has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in a Supreme Court hearing over the allegedly fatal punch on the surgeon.
It was alleged that the punch was prompted by a request for the man not to smoke near the hospital’s entrance.
In a statement, Monash Health backed the smoking ban, with smoking ban signs at each of its hospitals.
“If our security staff at Casey Hospital observe someone smoking, the person will be asked to smoke away from the Hospital.”
However, Australian Medical Association president Lorraine Baker said there was an enforcement “grey zone” around the smoking ban.
There was a public expectation that hospitals would enforce the ban, but the authority lay with local government officers, Dr Baker said.
“It’s difficult and one hopes that given a prompt, people would respond favourably not to smoke outside hospitals.”
In this situation, if there were repeated breaches, Casey Council could be called to enforce the ban, she said.
