| It had expected to have its first smoking policy liaison officer in post by now, chasing people flouting the ban on lighting up at hospital grounds across the region.
However, job-hunters have been resisting a £15,000 a year Dundee-based post.
It was advertised in April and the successful applicant is to be based primarily at Ninewells, but will also travel to Perth Royal Infirmary and Stracathro, by Brechin.
Only one person has applied and, when invited for interview, failed to show up.
The post has now been advertised again and there are five applicants.
Lesley Marley, the public health manager responsible for developing and promoting the new post, said the new applicants have still to be short-listed, but she expected interviews to take place within a month.
If the latest bid proves more fruitful than the last, the successful candidate can expect some resistance from his or her new colleagues, as well as patients and visitors.
Staff have no choice but to observe the smoking ban, having been threatened with disciplinary action.
But many have registered their displeasure while some even describe the policy as discriminatory against smokers and have dubbed the new post as a “smoking clipe”.
Meanwhile, as reported in the Tele last week, patients and visitors who smoke have colonised the “fresh air garden” next to Ninewells’ main entrance. They ignore announcements asking people to refrain from smoking.
When the Scottish Government introduced the ban on smoking in enclosed public places, NHS Tayside went further and banned smoking on every health service site, including hospital grounds and including even private cars parked there. But they have no authority to impose that wider ban on the public.
Paul Ballard, NHS Tayside’s deputy director of public health, who has driven forward policies to reduce smoking, has said the aim is to create a culture of no smoking. Over time, he hopes, people will no longer expect to smoke in public. |
