When the Ottawa Hospital banned all smoking on hospital property in early June, it led to some unexpected consequences.

And one of the most troubling is the traffic hazard created by patients crossing roads in their hospital gowns, often in wheelchairs and dragging their intravenous drips behind as they look for a place to smoke.

'Somebody's going to get killed here, especially cancer chemotherapy patients.'-John Day

John Day is just one patient at the hospital's General Campus who risks his life several times a day, dodging traffic at the busy intersection in his wheelchair.

"Somebody's going to get killed here, especially cancer chemotherapy patients," he said as he crossed the busy street in his wheelchair.

Day has cancer but neither his disease nor the traffic will stop him smoking.

"They're not going to stop us old smokers from coming out here," he said as he sat in his wheelchair across the road from the hospital.

There are similar problems at the hospital's Civic Campus. But homeowners near the hospital also complain about patients and staff smoking on their properties and leaving cigarettes butts behind.

Hospital spokeswoman Peggy Taillon said management is looking at other, safer ways to accommodate determined smokers.

"We are monitoring the situation really closely and we may have to revisit how we have implemented this," she said.

Taillon says patients who smoke are carefully monitored, management may recommend smoking areas off hospital property and they may install ashtrays and trashcans to keep the litter levels down.