Trust to look at fizzy drink ban

Health bosses want to promote a healthier lifestyle

NHS Tayside are planning to ban sales of full-sugar fizzy drinks from Ninewells Hospital in Dundee in a drive to promote healthier lifestyles.

The Trust said it hopes to remove the sugary drinks from all vending machines, shops and canteens at the hospital this summer.

But it stressed that people will not be prevented from buying the drinks outside hospital premises for patients.

Perth Royal Infirmary successfully introduced the ban 18 months ago.

A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside said: "We are at the initial stages of discussing this but the early feedback indicates that retailers (at the hospital) are going to be quite happy to go ahead with this.

Changed attitudes

She said: "The amount of full-sugar drinks we actually sell is so little now and we are only talking about the full-sugar drinks - not the diet version."

She added that visitors would not be stopped from bringing drinks in.

"This is just another step in our health promotion campaign," she said.

"We won't be banning full-sugar fizzy drinks from the wards and canteens - we just won't be selling them."

Brian Main, site manager at Ninewells Hospital, had previously said the ban would be difficult to introduce at Ninewells because of the amount of income generated.

But he said that attitudes have now changed.

"An interesting statistic is that about 70% of the fizzy drinks sold here is the diet product," he said.

"If you go back ten years it wouldn't have been anywhere near that."

NHS Tayside said it hopes to introduce the ban sometime over the summer months.