If you happen to visit Wollongong Hospital, one of the first things you're likely to notice is people milling around the entrance puffing on cigarettes.It might be someone in a wheelchair, a patient still hooked up to a drip, a nurse or a hospital visitor. It's not a pretty sight, especially for people such as Windang man Todd Leach who yesterday told how his sick daughter, who was recovering from chemotherapy, was forced to wear a mask before running the gauntlet of smokers during her weekly visit to the hospital.Mr Leach wants to know why patients and visitors to the hospital, supposedly a smoke-free zone, are continually confronted by smokers and garbage bins overflowing with butts.It's a fair question, but according to hospital management there is no simple solution because it can only ask smokers to move on and has no authority to issue on-the-spot fines.That may be so, but management does have control over its staff and should take immediate action to ensure no staff member smokes on or near hospital premises.And it should also instruct security staff to take a stronger and more pro-active role when it comes to smokers.At the very least that would be a start to rubbing out a problem that appears to have been ignored for too long.