A HOSPITAL trust has announced tighter restrictions on smoking by staff or patients in or around its hospitals in County Durham.

County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals Trust announced the changes yesterday in response to complaints from staff and visitors about smokers congregating around the entrances of hospitals.

Trust director of estates and facilities Kevin Oxley said: "Complaints centre around the 'haze of smoke' which non-smokers are having to walk through to enter our buildings, cigarette ends littering the entrances and gatherings of smokers creating a poor impression outside our front door."

Smoking is not allowed inside any of the trust's hospitals with the exception of one staff smoking room at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

The trust is planning to close the smoking room and extend the ban to the grounds of all of its hospitals by next April.

The only places where people will be able to smoke are in smoking shelters outside the main entrances.