New smoking areas for hospitals in Lincolnshire

Hospitals in Lincolnshire are taking action to provide smokers with somewhere to light up.

New designated smoking areas have been set up at three hospital sites.

Signs will direct smokers to eight designated areas at Lincoln County Hospital and three each at Boston's Pilgrim Hospital and Grantham Hospital.

The United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust said people smoking outside hospital entrances had been a problem in the past.

The trust's director of estates and facilities Mike Speakman said: "Whilst we would like people not to smoke at all in our hospital grounds, this hasn't been effective in practice.

"We are changing our policy so that, instead of our sites being completely smoke free, we only allow smoking in designated areas outside."