Note for Guidance

The Fire Safety Advice Centre

Health Care Premises including Hospitals

General

It is important to understand that more than one piece of fire safety legislation and/or fire safety guidance can be applied to any individual premises. For instance take a school the The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996 applies and there could be others. Fire Safety guidance documents including Guide 5 - Educational premises, Guide 1 - Offices and shops, Guide 6 - Small and medium places of assembly or Guide 7 - Large places of assembly may apply and if the school is a boarding school then Guide 3 - Sleeping accommodation could apply.

Introduction

In relation to fire safety in new and altered Healthcare Premises are subject to the Building Regulations and the guidance for fire matters are dealt with by Approved Document Part B Fire Safety. Within that document appendix G and H there is a list, of other guidance documents that may be relevant.

When premises are occupied fire precautions are then controlled by The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. and this order lays down legal requirements, check them out at the above link.

Fire Safety Guide for England and Wales

The most appropriate guide for Healthcare Premises including Hospitals is Guide 10 - Healthcare premises and can be downloaded at the Department of Communities and Local Government web site. It makes reference to Firecode & Health Technical Memoranda known as HTM,s for example,

• HTM 81 covers fire precautions in new hospitals built since 1978 (now HTM 05 series)
• HTM 85 covers fire precautions in existing hospitals (now HTM 05 series)
• HTM 86 covers fire risk assessment in hospitals (now HTM 05 series)

These are available and can be downloaded at the Department of Health web site.

These guides is for all employers, managers, occupiers and owners of premises providing healthcare (including private healthcare premises). It tells you what you have to do to comply with fire safety law, helps you to carry out a fire risk assessment and identify the general fire precautions you need to have in place. It applies to premises where the main use of the building or part of the building is to provide healthcare and includes,

• Hospitals; and
• Other healthcare premises.

It may also be suitable for individual healthcare premises that are within other multi-use complexes, although consultation with other responsible people will be necessary as part of an integrated risk assessment for the complex.

Also, where you handle and store flammable material and substances, it will help you take account of these in your risk assessment and help you determine the necessary precautions to take to minimise the likelihood of them being involved in fire.

This guide is not intended for use in,

• Care and nursing homes (other than those where the primary purpose is the provision of healthcare);
• Rehabilitation premises providing residential treatment and care for various forms of addiction;
• Day-care centres with no residential clients or service users;
• Sheltered accommodation;
• Out-posted nursing care in single private dwellings;
• Staff accommodation; and
• Administration blocks.

It has been written to provide guidance for a responsible person, to help them carry out a fire risk assessment in less complex premises. If you read the guide and decide that you are unable to apply the guidance, then you should seek the expert advice of a competent person. More complex premises will probably need to be assessed by a person who has comprehensive training or experience in fire risk
assessment. However, this guide can be used to address fire safety issues within the individual occupancies of multi-occupied buildings.

Fire safety is only one of many safety issues with which management must concern themselves to minimise the risk of injury or death to staff, patients or visitors. Unlike most of the other safety concerns, fire has the potential to injure or kill large numbers of people very quickly. This guidance is concerned only with fire safety but many of the measures discussed here will impact upon other safety issues. It is recognised that these differing safety demands can sometimes affect one another and
management should consult other interested agencies such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), where necessary, to confirm that they are not contravening other legislation/guidance.

Patients deserve the highest standards of fire safety care, employees deserve the best quality fire safety training. Consequently each year the hospital Chief Executive signs a document to stating that the risk to patients, visitors and employee's arising from the risk of fire, is being effectively managed and procedures are in place to ensure continuing fire safety management.

To achieve this many UK NHS Trusts, LHB.s and PCT.s have well qualified fire safety officers in each of their hospitals to carry out the day to day Fire Safety Training and when time permits Fire Risk Assessments. Many rely on these Fire Safety Officers to deal with all their hospitals fire safety. More and more are buying in their Fire Safety Consultancy on an as required basis or sub-contracting.

This handout provides a general overview and basic information on this topic. It may not apply to everyone, consequently to find out if this guide applies to you and to get more information on this subject, study all the relevant legislation, guides and British/European Standards. Also you should seek advice from an expert on the subject or your local Fire Safety Officer or Fire Safety Professional.

Merseyside Fire Liaison Panel. Permission is granted to print and photocopy this material for nonprofit educational uses.

[Index] [Advice Centre]

This page was last checked and modified on Tuesday, 25 March, 2008 10:02