A Bangkok hospital director has threatened to lock smokers in “gas chambers” if he catches them smoking on the premises.
Dr Rienthong Nanna, director of Mongkutwattana Hospital, in the Laksi district of the capital, has vowed to crack down on people who light up in his hospital, by locking them in telephone booths where they can inhale their own cigarette smoke.
The Director has enacted his own summary punishment to smokers in his hospital in the past.
The phone booths were donated to the hospital to help with Covid-19 screening during the pandemic, but Dr Rienthong is now considering repurposing them as “gas chambers” to discipline defiant smokers.
“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.”
Posting on his Facebook page, Dr Rienthong says the booths will be kitted out with smoke-detecting lock sensors. Once smoke is detected, the booths will be locked until the smoke dissipates, at which point they will be unlocked and smokers can leave.
The ex-military, ultra-royalist medic is no stranger to controversy, having previously made the headlines for slapping and stripping a teenager caught smoking in the hospital.
Dr Rienthong defends his actions by saying he wants to protect the health of patients and hospital visitors
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
