The 'smoking shed' should be reinstated at University Hospital Limerick as patients currently can only smoke on nearby streets, a local councillor says.
Like other hospitals and HSE facilities around the country, UHL is a smoke-free campus.
That means smoking is not allowed throughout the hospital or on the hospital grounds.
Fergus Kilcoyne, Independent Councillor for Limerick City West, told Newstalk Breakfast this policy is causing issues for some patients and locals in Limerick.
He said: “At the moment, the patients in the hospital are actually going out on the main street… and smoking along the perimeter of the hospital.
“There are cigarettes butts and everything being put on the footpath, and local residents in the area contacted me on numerous occasions to ask if anything can be done about it.”
Councillor Kilcoyne suggested the problem has only gotten worse during the pandemic.
However, he suggested the hospital has "plenty of land" behind the hospital that could be used to provide space for smokers.
He said: “[The land] could be used as a meeting area as well, as people are [currently] coming to the hospital to meet patients out on the streets as they can’t go in.”
The HSE's smoke-free policy is aimed at "denormalising" tobacco use in healthcare settings, as well as to protect staff, service users and visitors from the harmful effects of smoke.
Councillor Kilcoyne argued that people still have the right to smoke or not smoke.
He said: "[Smokers at UHL] are in a situation where it’s a stressful time.
"You have patients coming out onto the street in pyjamas… it just doesn’t look right.”
