SMOKERS are facing a £60 fine or even being taken to court for lighting up on NHS Fife hospital grounds. 

The health board want to reduce the harm caused by tobacco – it costs them £10.5 million each year to treat smoking-related diseases – and will take tougher action to kick the habit on their land. 

Signs and tannoy announcements reminding patients, staff and visitors that smoking was forbidden had "limited success" at Queen Margaret and Victoria hospitals and have largely been ignored by those who continue to puff away at the main entrances.

Director of public health Dr Margaret Hannah said in her annual report: "In 2018, new offences will be introduced which will impose a penalty charge on people found smoking in hospital grounds. 

"These offences are not intended to replace the existing hospital grounds no-smoking ban but mean that staff will be able to do more than just ask smokers to respect this. 

"They will be able to seek support from local authority enforcement officers who can issue fixed penalty notices or refer extreme cases to the procurator fiscal."

The board believe every visit to one of their sites is a chance to promote healthier choices and the crackdown is just one measure to tackle the Kingdom's abysmal smoking record, with a new mobile phone app introduced to help smokers to quit. 

Dr Hannah outlined the scale of the problem and said: "Each year, 700 people die of smoking-related diseases in Fife, which comprises 23 per cent of all deaths. 

"There are more than 9,000 hospital admissions and around 370 people are diagnosed with lung cancer and 3,400 with chronic lung disease (COPD)."

But while good progress has been made in reducing smoking in adults, expectant mothers and young people, Fife was "not performing so well" compared to the rest of the country. 

She continued: "Overall smoking rates in Fife are the third highest in health board areas in Scotland.

"Among young people aged 15 years, Fife has the highest smoking rates for all health boards in Scotland and is the third highest for smoking at pregnancy booking."

It is estimated that NHS Fife spends £3.4m treating lung cancer and £7.1m treating COPD each year. 

The health board has signed up to ASH Scotland's charter, which aims to inspire organisations to try to create a tobacco-free generation of Scots by 2034, and has implemented a smoke-free care placements policy to protect vulnerable children from the serious health risks associated with second-hand smoke. 

They're also working with youth groups and St Andrews University, who have developed a stop smoking app, and aim to get more people to quit in the most disadvantaged areas of Fife, where the percentage of smokers is higher.