Patients at R.K Khan District Hospital in Chatsworth in KwaZulu-Natal and their families have shared videos of patients smoking in one of the wards. Health-e News has seen three separate videos which were taken on different days. The videos depict men smoking cigarettes in full view of other patients, their visitors as well as hospital staff. 

The first video shows a man dressed in blue who’s lying under a light blue blanket on a hospital bed in the middle of the ward. The man is seen repeatedly taking a drag of a lit cigarette and then dropping the ashes into what looks like a polystyrene cup placed beside him on the bed. In the video one can see nurses walking about in the ward while other patients are eating. No one seems to notice the smoking man. 

In a second video a man dressed in white, also lying under a light blue blanket on a hospital bed is seen taking a drag from a lit cigarette before hanging his right arm over the side of the bed, as if to hide the cigarette in his hand. 

As per the previous two videos, the third one shows a patient in a hospital bed smoking a cigarette. 

Themba*, who speaks with Health-e News on condition of anonymity to protect his relative who’s a patient at the hospital says he was shocked to see patients smoking inside a ward. 

“I have never seen anything like this. It is so disgusting. I visited my nephew who is admitted at ward 04 in the hospital and I was shocked to see patients smoking. At first I thought they were hiding their behaviour from the nurses. However, on my second visit there were nurses who were walking up and down the ward and they did not say a thing to the smoking patients,” he says. 

He says this has to be attended to. 

“What about the rights of other patients who are non-smokers? How will tobacco smoke affect their sicknesses and recoveries? This cannot be right at all, their rights have been violated and the hospital is entertaining this sick behaviour.” 

Patients rights violated

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), tobacco use is a leading cause of preventable deaths. It accounts for eight million deaths globally, including 1,3 million non-smokers. 

Dr Sharon Nyatsanza, deputy director at the National Council Against Smoking (NCAS) tells Health-e News that smoking inside a hospital is in violation of the law on the part of the smoker. Furthermore, it’s also a violation of law on the part of the people in charge of the healthcare facility. The current Tobacco Control Laws do not allow smoking in public indoor spaces. 

“A person can not smoke in a public indoor space, healthcare facilities and clinics are some of those public indoor spaces. Unless the managers or whoever is in charge have closed out a smoking room that adheres to all the technical engineering requirements that are outlined under the law.  Smoking inside a hospital does not only violate the law but it is also a violation of the rights of many non- smokers that actually are in those healthcare facilities,” she says. 

Nyatsanza says NCAS supports the proposed Tobacco Control Bill which is before parliament. The Bill seeks to strengthen public health protection measures and align South African tobacco control laws with the WHO framework for tobacco control. 

She says smoking in public healthcare facilities is really alarming and adds that it poses serious risk to all patients. 

“Firstly because people who visit the public healthcare facility are already ill or trying to recover from certain illnesses. So when you expose them to tobacco smoke you are jeopardising their chances of recovering, you are worsening their outcomes of the diseases that they actually may have,” she says. 

“Smoking not only harms the smokers but also the non-smokers. So non-smokers inhale secondhand smoke. It is equally as harmful because it still contains more than 7000 chemicals, 70 of which cause cancer. So there is no safe level, non-smokers face the same risk of cancer, strokes and heart diseases,” says Nyatsanza. 

Department concerned about incident

KZN health spokesperson Ntokozo Maphisa says the department is concerned about the incident. 

“The department has instructed hospital management to urgently look into this matter, and find a way to ensure that such a practice does not re-occur,” Maphisa says. 

Maphisa says al public health facilities are strictly no-smoking zones, as determined by the Tobacco Products Control Act 83 of 1993.

“This includes the orthopaedics ward at RK Khan Hospital. This stance is further reflected through public notices that are erected in all corners of the hospital ward in question, notifying patients that smoking in the ward is not allowed,” she says.

She adds that upon admission, all patients are instructed not to smoke in the ward, due to the danger that this may pose to themselves, as well as other patients and staff.

“Furthermore, security guards are mandated to conduct frequent rounds and spot-checks to look out for any cigarette smoking activity in the toilets. If found, the cigarettes are taken away.

Nurses also closely monitor patients, to ensure that they do not smoke in the wards. Those patients who are not ambulant are informed that, should they have uncontrollable cigarette cravings, they should inform security and ask to be taken to the designated smoking area,” she says. – Health-e News

*Not his real name