A Swiss hospital will allow terminally ill patients to commit suicide within its walls, a spokesman said on Sunday, becoming the first in the country to allow the practice.

The university hospital in Lausanne had previously sent patients wishing to die home, where they could call on one of the country’s assisted suicide organisations to help them take their lives, the spokesman said.

He said the hospital had decided to allow such organisations access from next year for patients who were so ill that they could not be transported to their homes, but would not itself help people take their lives.

“We’re not asking our doctors to assist ... suicide, but we will open our gates to the associations,” said Alberto Crespo, responsible for legal and ethical affairs at the hospital.

Assisting suicide is legal in Switzerland. But euthanasia - for instance when a doctor gives a patient a lethal injection on the patient’s request - is not.

Many terminally ill foreigners travel to Switzerland to commit suicide, taking advantage of the Swiss rules, which are among the world’s most liberal on suicide.

Suicide in the hospital will only be allowed under strict conditions, Crespo said. Patients have to be terminally ill, capable of making decisions and sane.

The hospital was the first in Switzerland to allow the practice, Crespo said, although some homes for the elderly also allow assisted suicide.