A ledge outside a window of the waiting area in ward WS1 has been used as an ashtray and is now piled with cigarette ends. The ward in question is a post-operation ward where patients convalesce after having undergone surgery.

However, sources at St Luke’s Hospital told TMID that this is not the only area in which visitors, and occasionally patients, are caught smoking.

When contacted by TMID, hospital superintendent Frank Bartolo confirmed that there were numerous incidents of people smoking inside the hospital premises. “I have seen the window ledge that you indicated and it is evident that smoking in hospital is widespread. The people who smoke there, and anywhere in the hospital for that matter, are being gravely irresponsible.”

Asked whether anyone had been fined for smoking in the hospital, Dr Bartolo said that St Luke’s has “an average of 10 security guards detailed at the hospital at any given time. Yet, to my knowledge, none of them has ever lodged a report about someone caught smoking in the hospital. I have personally reported several individuals; however the security officers do not seem to come across these infringements.”

The waiting room TMID

indicated, Dr Bartolo explained, still forms part of the ward’s confines. Moreover, he added, the hospital is full of oxygen points and piping. “If, God forbid, there is a fire it could cause untold damage.”

Asked whether he planned to take any action on the matter, Dr Bartolo said: “Unfortunately the matter is out of my jurisdiction, I am responsible for the health of my patients and not for security officers. One of the priorities will be to clean the ledge at ward WS1 although it will be difficult given the fact that it is hard to reach out to but somehow we will find the way around it.”