LIGHTING
Keep your emergency lighting in good health
When it comes to emergency incidents, hospitals and healthcare facilities often provide a safe haven for those in need of critical care. However, as Mo Hanslod, CEO of supplier of emergency lighting solutions, Bri-Tek Technologies, explains, such premises are not immune to their own crises, and hospitals must have adequate emergency lighting in place to avoid any potential harmful consequences.
Naturally, hospital buildings and the overall estate on which they are located, are heavily regulated. From complying with infection control legislation, to health and safety regulations and even policies on staffing, each facility must operate against a backdrop of a complex array of governance on an almost daily basis. However, when updated emergency lighting regulatory reforms were introduced in May 2016, few could have anticipated the implications for healthcare providers across the UK.
For estates managers tasked with managing one of the largest property portfolios in Europe in the shape of the National Health Service (NHS) estate, managing lighting can be one of the most critical tasks. With an estate covering a total area of 65.2 million m2
of land, and
encompassing some 2,300 hospitals and 10,500 general practices, ensuring that lighting on healthcare sites operates optimally at all times can be a significant challenge. There are very few environments where lighting has such a vital role to play, whether it is being used to enhance the patient experience through comfortable illumination, or to improve the level of care provided by staff. Such is its value in healthcare buildings that high quality illumination levels in hospitals have even been found to positively impact on patient health, with research indicating that lighting affects mood and human circadian rhythms or the sleep/wake cycle.
Cost constraints
Equally, rarely do environments pose as many challenges when it comes to illumination as hospitals do. Estates managers are not only under increasing pressure to curb overspending on lighting and reduce operating costs – with the NHS spending more than £750 million on energy each year – but also to introduce cutting edge energy efficiency measures to ensure that long-term savings can be maintained. By necessity, a typical NHS hospital consists of a myriad of specialist departments, and critical spaces such as
A new approach to emergency lighting
The importance of emergency lighting is clear in all premises, but especially in healthcare facilities – given the vulnerability of many of the users.
operating theatres, labour wards, and intensive care units, each connected by numerous intertwining corridors, floors, and staircases. Hence failure in any area of the lighting system could have potentially harmful and damaging consequences, not only for the patients in care, but also for the staff and numerous visitors on site. In the majority of buildings when the lights go out it can be a minor inconvenience. In healthcare environments, however, the potential impacts of not having adequate emergency lighting in place are substantial. In the event of an emergency situation such as a fire, which results in the loss of electricity, emergency lighting is required for the movement of patients, staff, and visitors, to a place of safety. Consequently, if a power outage occurs, it may simply be required to provide an adequate back-up level of illumination to ensure that critical day-to-day patient care can be maintained and reduce the risk of danger to occupants.
The long-awaited revision to the Emergency Lighting Code of Practice BS5266:1 2016, issued in May 2016, has only compounded the necessity for sufficient emergency lighting in healthcare facilities, and estates managers are increasingly keen to address the issue. The British Standard, which outlines clear guidelines for hospitals, calls for a more nuanced approach to emergency lighting design and installation in multiple- occupancy premises such as healthcare facilities. Under the updated standard, detailed direction is given on factors that must be considered during the installation and wiring of both new and existing emergency lighting systems, as well as the specific location of lighting, to ensure that an appropriate level of illumination is provided in the event of a lighting outage. For instance, while specific illuminance levels are required along designated escape routes, emergency lighting systems also need to provide higher levels of lighting in precise zones, such as locations of fire safety equipment, alarm points, first aid sites, and high-risk areas such as staircases. Evacuating a hospital can be a particularly challenging, especially with so many patients reliant on specialised equipment, unable to walk or having limited mobility, or otherwise unable to be moved easily.
‘Stay put’ lighting
Bri-Tek’s emergency battery for LED lighting.
The new standard introduces the concept of ‘stay put’ or ‘standby’ lighting, setting clear parameters for levels of illumination that should be provided in instances where it is deemed that occupants should remain in the premises during a mains electrical failure. Should the decision be made that people can stay on site during a light outage, sufficient ‘stay put’ lighting, of one lux minimum, must be provided at all times in areas of a building that people will move through. The minimum illuminance figure for escape routes has also been increased to one lux from 0.2 lux previously, in line with European requirements.
May 2019 Health Estate Journal 73
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