FIRE SAFETY
‘regularly’, something most hospitals did annually. He added: “Many hospitals look at the risks in particular areas and then decide on how often the review needs to be done thereafter. In law currently, however, there is only a requirement to undertake one initial risk assessment, which must then be reviewed regularly thereafter. What tends to happen in other sectors – although not so much in healthcare – is that where contractors are used to undertaking fire risk assessments, they do it from scratch each year and produce a brand new one – in my view a potential waste of resources.”
Different recommendations Having himself been asked to review existing fire risk assessments in healthcare and other premises, Maz Daoud had been ‘quite struck’ by how often two separate assessments by different contractors at an interval of perhaps just 2-3 years could differ considerably in their recommendations. I asked what qualifications external fire risk assessment companies in healthcare facilities actually needed. Maz Daoud said: “There are a substantial number of such companies out there, and this work should be their sole activity. If I was considering employing one, I would want it to be accredited under a third-party certification scheme. Worryingly, there is currently no legal requirement to have any particular qualifications. The legislation and guidance (Firecode and HTM Part K) simply say you should have somebody ‘competent’ do it, with ‘sufficient training and experience, or knowledge, and other qualities’.” While the new Fire Technical Platform is very keen to establish a fire risk assessor Register, Maz Daoud said that – due to the amount of work involved – he couldn’t seed it being up and running for about two years. Currently, he acknowledged, there was nothing (apart from their own judgment and experience) to prevent a Trust’s Estates & Facilities manager commissioning a hitherto unknown fire risk assessment contractor to undertake an assessment, with the risk that it would have ‘little idea’ of what it was doing. I wondered how long it typically took an external fire risk assessment contractor to undertake a comprehensive assessment at a large acute hospital. Maz Daoud said: “We could be talking months, and a full assessment can be quite expensive. Often the Trust will then get the same external
‘‘
A fire compartment and a fire door – neither of which have been properly maintained.
contractor to undertake the subsequent reviews, which should, in theory, be much simpler and less time-consuming.”
Open to abuse?
I guessed that, without a current register for risk assessors operating in healthcare giving some assurance of external contractors’ competence, the current process was open to abuse. “Indeed,” Maz Daoud confirmed, “and fire risk assessments by the uninitiated tend to be qualitative rather than quantitative. When most assessors go in they will err on the side of caution, whereas, in my view, if there are things that need addressing, they should state precisely why, based on the risk.”
What of the other initial priorities for the new Platform? Maz Daoud said: “I believe it has a key part to play in providing advice to other Trusts and private healthcare providers on fire safety issues. If we have the expertise and knowledge, why not share it? Any advice we do offer, however, should be underpinned by reference to existing guidance and legislation.”
While the Platform has not yet discussed holding its own seminars, Maz Daoud pointed out that the National Association of Healthcare Fire Officers (NAHFO), with whom IHEEM has strong links, holds its own annual event and seminars, and explained that the Platform was already working with the Association; one of the Technical Platform members is Peter Aldridge, the NAHFO General Secretary. He added: “I know NAHFO is also keen to establish a fire risk assessor register, and has been seeking a partner. IHEEM has emerged favourably, because it already has its Authorising Engineer Registers, although not yet for fire. We are keen to foster continuing IHEEM and NAHFO collaboration.”
We would need some form of assessment process – whether by candidates completing an exam, or fire risk assessments, accompanied by submission of the associated documentation
34 Health Estate Journal October 2018 The fire sprinkler ‘issue’
The need or to fit hospitals, and especially new-build facilities, with fire sprinklers, has been a contentious issue for some years. I asked Maz Daoud for his view. He said: “This is certainly something that the Platform will champion. While in retrofit schemes it can be challenging to get fire sprinkler infrastructure in, if a healthcare facility is undergoing a major refurbishment or constructing new buildings, sprinklers should certainly be included. In Wales they are now mandatory. The Welsh do, however, seem to be ahead of England on fire sprinkler provision; it is now also a requirement for all new housing stock. The only place it is currently mandatory in England is in buildings above 30 metres high.” The Platform chair emphasised that where fire sprinklers were fitted, fire compartments could be larger, and there were fewer ‘high-risk rooms’; for instance while a sluice room on a ward would normally be fire-rated, if fitted with sprinklers this would be negated. Maz Daoud added: “Fitting fire sprinklers will thus reduce the amount of fire compartmentation, fire doors, and fire dampers required, which also means ongoing maintenance savings. It reduces the risk quite considerably. For instance, we had an arson attack in a toilet at one of our hospitals, and the sprinkler extinguished it almost immediately, while in a similar attack in a toilet in another Sodexo-managed healthcare facility without sprinklers, the incident caused quite extensive damage.”
Raising the profile
As our discussions closed, Maz Daoud said that, in wider terms, it would be a key ambition of the new Platform to ‘raise the whole profile of fire safety within IHEEM’. He elaborated: “Although fire safety is taken pretty seriously within the NHS, for some reason it tends to be ‘lumped in’ with ‘Security’ at many hospitals. I believe that if you are going to put fire safety in with anything, it should be with Resilience and Business Continuity, as it seems to fit in well with both those areas.”
hej
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