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lighting


Business as usual


This article explores how emergency lighting solutions help to keep patients, residents, staff and visitors safe in the event of a power failure in a hospital or care home


Emergency escape lighting is sub-


divided into escape route lighting, open area lighting, standby lighting, and high-risk task area lighting.


E


mergency lighting comes into play when the main power supply is cut and any normal illumination fails,


such as during a fire or a power outage. Providing emergency illumination for


the safety of people leaving a location is a requirement of The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the British Standard, BS 5266-1, specifically embraces hospitals and nursing homes. Emergency lighting products should


be designed to meet the requirements of EN1838 and are normally required to operate fully automatically and give illumination of a sufficiently-high level to enable all occupants to evacuate the premises safely. In hospitals, this also means


enabling surgeons and other clinical staff to complete their work until they can safely evacuate or until power is restored.


Talking it through “The first stage of installing emergency escape lighting is consultation and design,” said a spokesman at the advice centre, Firesafe. “The designer, responsible person,


and fire risk assessor should meet and decide where the escape lighting is required and mark up a plan showing the areas to be covered, the type, mode of operation, facilities, and duration.” The actual degree of illumination


should be closely related to the nature of both the premises and its occupants, with special consideration being given to care homes and hospitals. A spokesman for Thorn Lighting said:


“Emergency lighting is required for the movement of patients, staff and visitors to a place of safety. “In certain healthcare buildings the


emergency lighting will need to take account of tasks that have to continue even when other spaces may be evacuated, known as standby lighting. “In critical areas, such as operating theatres, delivery rooms, and high


dependency units, the illuminance provided by this standby lighting should equal at least 90% of the normal mains illuminance, or thereabouts. Other important tasks, but in non-critical areas, will require standby lighting generally to 50% of the normal levels.” A generator will supply standby


lighting while escape routes will generally be covered by luminaires with integral emergency control gear. Lighting near the doors to bedded


wards will require careful illuminance and luminance control, with three- hour self-contained emergency lighting on all escape routes. Rob Warner, managing director


of emergency lighting specialist, P4, said: “Emergency lighting is something we see every day, but probably don’t give a lot of thought to. But its importance should not be underestimated. It saves lives.”


Assessing the risk This impact was evident during the Grenfell Tower blaze in 2017. A decade before the tragedy a


report by Capita Symonds contained a number of health and safety concerns regarding the emergency lighting


56 healthcaredm.co.uk


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