UKIP’s Vice Chairman for Lancashire has called on hospital bosses to rethink their attitude towards e-cigarettes, describing it as “bullying of citizens”.
AdvertisementThe smoking of e-cigarettes, or vaping, is currently banned in Preston and Chorley hospitals and James Barker has called on the chief executive of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in a letter.
The letter read, “Many or most users of e-cigarettes are being treated unfairly and unwisely. This bullying of citizens, by banning them from car parks and pathways as well as hospital buildings, has to stop. If the NHS carries on like this they will force people, many desperate to stop smoking, back onto cigarettes.”
Stuart Heys, chairman of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust responded, “Our current policy states that we do not recommend the use of electronic cigarettes. As health professionals we can only recommend the use of evidenced-based strategies to support people to be smoke free. Currently the e-cigarette is not regulated as a tobacco product or as a medicine in the UK.”
This comes after Public Health England announced that smoking e-cigarettes is 95 per cent less harmful than tobacco.