“Right outside the hospital where sick people are? Not a good look.”
It happened so often that she tried to mentally block them out, but the “the hand out ... cigarette between fingers” pose made them too obvious - not to mention the “yuck” odour.
Large had seen smoke-free signs by the main entrance and was sure others couldn’t miss them.
Smokers were either “ignoring” them, or just “don’t care”.
She hoped those smoking and vaping were being told to move on, but said she had never seen hospital staff enforcing the smoke-free policy.
She wasn’t sure whether staff should be the ones to police it, because she as they were already “overworked and understaffed”.
Large considered using a different entrance less popular with smokers and vapers.
Another hospital visitor said they often avoided the main entrance when they saw people smoking, but they “shouldn’t have to”.
A smoke-free sign is visible on the sign at the main entrance to Rotorua Hospital. Photo / Andrew Warner
The person was the full-time carer for a young relative undergoing treatment for leukaemia and attended every visit. Neither of them wanted to be named for this story.
They needed to go to the hospital at least once a week, sometimes three or four times.
They had “no choice” but to go through the main entrance when it was raining.
“The way it feels in our throats sometimes causes us to cough.”
The smoke could be “quite strong”, especially when it blew towards the entrance doors and got trapped in the enclosed area.
“Elderly and children are our most vulnerable [and] their health isn’t something we should compromise on, for anything.”
The visitor believed the smokers were both visitors and patients, but “more so patients”.
They said people had the right to choose if they wanted to smoke or vape, but it was “frustrating” that they chose to do so at the hospital entrance when “the rules are clear”.
The visitor had never raised the issue with anyone as it appeared to them that the hospital “didn’t care enough” to enforce the smoke-free area.
Health New Zealand Lakes group director of operations Alan Wilson outside Rotorua Hospital main entrance.
Alan Wilson, Health New Zealand Lakes group director of operations, said Rotorua Hospital was a smoke-free environment and workplace, a policy endorsed by mana whenua Ngāti Whakaue.
The main entrance had nine signs advising that the hospital grounds were smoke-free.
The signs were on boards and footpath etchings. They were visible from “all main approaches” into the hospital, including the visitors’ carpark and southern entrance, he said.
It was “not feasible” to enforce a “blanket ban” on smoking and vaping.
However, hospital staff approached people to ask them to comply with the smoke-free policy when breaches occurred.
He encouraged the public to respect the smoke-free policy.
Action for Smokefree 2025 director Ben Youdan said that, given the “unique sensitivities” of a hospital environment, smoke-free policies “must go beyond a ban”.
A visitor to Rotorua Hospital has described being hit with a "massive cloud of vape" while using the entrance. Photo / Alex Cairns
“People should absolutely not be smoking around hospitals and exposing others to second-hand smoke,” he said.
Youdan called it a “sad fact” that many people ended up in hospital as a result of smoking, meaning smokers were often patients.
He said people used nicotine to cope with the stress of a hospital visit, and hospitals should consider policies that supported patients to quit smoking.
Such measures would “exponentially” increase the success of the smoke-free policy already in place.
The Ministry of Health said it “strongly” supported smoke-free and vape-free policies, but these were “not legally enforceable under current legislation”.
Signage and staff engagement formed part of the “supportive approach” that health services took to help people comply with smoke-free and vape-free expectations on hospital grounds.
The ministry was working with partners such as Health NZ/Te Whatu Ora to support a culture in which smoke-free and vape-free environments were the “norm”.
Annabel Reid is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, based in Rotorua. Originally from Hawke’s Bay, she has a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Canterbury.
