At the start of last year, smoking was banned outside the entrances to Bradford Royal Infirmary. But as a report a few months later in the Telegraph & Argus showed, the move was not an unqualified success. Sadly, today the picture looks much the same, with those desperate for their fix prepared to light up beneath signs outlining the no-smoking rules.

The arguments in favour of the hospital ban have not gone away in the intervening 18 months: people should not have to battle through clouds of smoke and step through a mess of dog-ends to enter a building dedicated to health. That they do continues to make a mockery of the efforts to counter smoking-related illnesses.

It could be argued that this month's ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces has strengthened support for other bans as the non-smoking majority gets used to a breath of fresh air.

Calling for stricter enforcement from the hospital authorities and more responsible behaviour from smokers seems, so far, to have fallen on deaf ears. Hospital chiefs say it is up to all staff to remind colleagues, patients and visitors of the rules, while many of those workers are reluctant to get into situations of potential conflict.

It may now be time for the hospital authorities to encourage security staff to enforce the rules outdoors. For the mixed message being sent out by two no-smoking bans, one enforced, one ignored, is an unacceptable state of affairs.