SMOKING shelters have been put in place at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary in a bid to move smokers away from the entrance.

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust has installed four shelters at HRI and four at Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax to help protect visitors, patients and staff from the effects of second-hand smoke.

The shelters have been put up away from the main reception areas at both hospitals to keep the entrances smoke-free.

They offer smokers a designated area which can be easily maintained by estates staff to keep the outdoor hospital environment clean.

At the royal infirmary they are at the front of the main car park away from the main entrance, outside accident and emergency, on South Drive and at the entrance off Occupation Road.

At Calderdale Royal they have been placed in the car park to the left of the main entrance, outside accident and emergency, near the Children’s and Women’s Services building and at the hospital’s old main entrance.

The shelters and surrounding areas will be cleaned regularly and the hospital’s security staff will ask smokers to use the shelters rather than other public areas.

Signs will also be put up to direct smokers to their nearest shelter.

The move comes after hospital bosses received complaints from unhappy visitors tired of being greeted by cigarette smoke at both hospital entrances. Several people have written to the Examiner to complain.

The Trust – which runs Huddersfield Royal and Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax – announced it was turning smoke-free in 2006.

But despite the No Smoking signs, smokers have continued to break the rules, filling the entrances on both sites with tab-ends and second-hand smoke.

Frank Gibbons, director of estates and facilities, said: “We remain totally committed to no-smoking on the premises and want to keep our entrances and exits smoke-free for the benefit of all visitors to the hospital.

“We ask people to co-operate and use the shelters if they wish to smoke.”

The Trust will also be offering advice to anyone wanting to quit smoking.