DYING patients have checked out of a hospice because they were not allowed to smoke cigarettes.

At least two terminally ill people have left St Leonard's Hospice, in York, after being denied what a doctor described as one of their few remaining pleasures.

Under the national smoking ban, hospices are allowed to permit smoking in designated bedrooms for the comfort of dying patients, but St Leonard's chose a total ban.

Dr Brian McGregor, vice chairman of York local medical committee, said: "The physician in me would never want to encourage smoking, but for somebody for whom medicine has failed, I can't see the logic in banning it.

"They are bed-bound, they are not able to enjoy food and drink and smoking is one of the few pleasures they have left. Smoking will not make any impact on their health now and I don't think we should be making them more unhappy by banning it."

He said that two of his patients had left the hospice because of the ban.

Neil Rafferty, of Forest, which campaigns for the right to smoke, said: "It beggars belief. These are people who just want the opportunity to live their lives as best they can for as long as they can.

"They have come to the hospice so they can be cared for in a comforting way and to tell them they can't indulge in a cigarette is unbelievably cruel."

A spokesman for St Leonard's said the hospice imposed the ban after consulting staff, patients, visitors, service users and other organisations.

"The decision was not made lightly but, as a healthcare organisation, we felt it appropriate to embrace the legislation," he said.

"The policy will not permit smoking by anyone on the hospice's premises or in its grounds. The policy applies to staff, visitors and patients."