The NHS is due to become smoke-free by the end of 2006 as part of a government drive to tackle public health problems.

Official guidance released last month said hospitals should aim to ban smoking in all buildings and grounds.

But nurses and campaigners working with mental health patients said the country's 80 mental health trusts should not adopt a blanket ban.

Government Response: Department of Health

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "The guidance allowed some scope for flexibility. We are going to be consulting on how exemptions will work, there is a case for long-stay patients and we will look at that."

Stakeholder Response: NHS Confederation

Jo Webber, policy manager at the NHS Confederation said: "I think implementing a total smoking ban is difficult when it comes to long-stay hospital patients because the hospital almost becomes their home. And so I can see that in the short term we should take a pragmatic approach and phase this ban in slowly so patients aren’t harmed.