The director of Mongkutwattana Hospital in Bangkok has vowed to lock defiant smokers on his premises in “gas chambers” until they inhale 100% of their cigarette smoke.
Maj Gen Dr Rienthong Nanna, the director of the private hospital in the capital's Laksi district, wrote on his Facebook account on Sunday that he would use previously donated public telephone booths to discipline anyone who defies the smoking ban at his hospital.
According to his post, telephone booths were donated to support Covid-19 screening at his hospital between 2020 and 2022.
They will be used as “gas chambers” where people will be confined if they dare to smoke in his hospital.
“In the innovative gas chambers, those who defy the smoking ban at Mongkutwattana Hospital can fully inhale the smoke from their own cigarettes. The smoke will not be released to the outside and annoy or harm the public but will ruin the health of the smokers themselves,” Maj Gen Dr Rienthong wrote.
The booths will be equipped with lock sensors which detect smoke. When smoke in such booths disappears, the doors will be automatically unlocked and defiant smokers can then leave the booths, he wrote.
He said that he would not slap “selfish” smokers at his hospital anymore but would instead put them in the “gas chambers”.
Recently Maj Gen Dr Rienthong made headlines when he slapped and stripped a teenager who smoked at his hospital.
The director said he had to take tough action to protect the health of other visitors and patients because cigarette smoke from a room or a toilet room would be circulated throughout the hospital – including patient wards – through the building's air-conditioning and ventilation systems.
The assault led to legal action against him. Meanwhile, it turned out that the teenager was allegedly in possession of heroin during his visit to the hospital.