SMOKING will be banned from all areas in hospitals.

The County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is updating its no-smoking policy and will implement a ban in all its hospital grounds by spring next year.

Changes to the policy will be introduced in two phases.

Next month, the staff smoking room at Darlington Memorial Hospital will be closed and smoking will be limited to designated areas.

The trust's director of facilities, Kevin Oxley, said: "From the beginning of next month, smoking will be limited to designated shelters and areas.

"We will be reviewing our smoking policy this year, as it is likely that smoking will be banned throughout the NHS by the end of 2006.

"We will be as sensitive as possible to the needs of staff, patients and visitors who smoke, but our priority is to provide a smoke-free environment for those who do not."

The designated smoking areas will be signposted and leaflets will be sent to patients with their appointment or admission letters.

Security staff will police the areas although the trust has promised a "soft" approach to implementing its new policy in the first 12 months.

Phase two of the strategy will begin in April 2006 and will include a full review of no-smoking policy.

It is planned that the review will lead to a complete smoking ban across all of the trust's sites, to coincide with the Government's recent White Paper on smoking in public places.

The White Paper states that all Government departments and the NHS should be smoke-free by the end of next year.

At the moment, the trust's policy does not allow people to smoke inside hospital buildings, but it does not prevent people smoking in hospital grounds.