The LWF Blog
Fire Risk Assessment for Healthcare Premises – An Introduction – Part 76
March 7, 2022 12:56 pmLWF’s blog series for healthcare professionals aims to give information on best practice of fire safety in hospitals and other healthcare premises. In part 75 of Fire Engineering for Healthcare Premises, LWF looked at the case of a temporary structure integrated into a high-rise hospital for an endoscopy unit. In part 76, we begin to look at the available guidance on fire risk assessments in complex healthcare premises, as per HTM 05-03.
Guidance on fire risk assessments for complex healthcare premises can be found in HTM 05-03 Part K ‘Guidance on fire risk assessments in complex healthcare premises’ and is supplementary to the guidance given in the Government’s Fire safety risk assessment: Healthcare Premises sometimes referred to as the Green Guide.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005 requires fire risk assessments to be undertaken and the guidance provided should be used by the person responsible whether they are undertaking a fire risk assessment on healthcare premises for the first time or it is a review and update of an existing fire risk assessment.
The guidance mentioned above and the information contained in this blog series pertain to fire safety in patient-access areas of a healthcare building and not to areas on a hospital site which are not patient-access. Examples of some areas falling outside of patient-access areas are main kitchens, stand-alone office blocks, laundries etc. which should be assessed as per the appropriate Fire Safety Order guide.
This blog series on ‘Fire Risk Assessment for Healthcare Premises’ will work its way through the guidance given in HTM 05-03 Part K which details the five-step approach to fire risk assessment and how it can be applied to complex healthcare premises.
Complex healthcare premises are those which provide invasive procedures and other treatments and which place a reliance on staff for assistance with evacuation of patients.
Fire risk assessments in healthcare premises should be undertaken by a suitably qualified and/or experienced person in fire risk assessment. The guidance and these blogs may be useful for other associated parties, such as fire safety staff, estates staff, employees, health and safety representatives, enforcing authorities and any other person who may have an input into fire safety in premises providing healthcare.
The fire risk assessment procedures discussed will not be appropriate for use in designing fire safety in new build healthcare premises, they are intended for existing facilities. Equally, the recommendations and guidance given may pertain to prescriptive standards, although it is accepted that fire engineered solutions may be in place which are equally or even more suitable.
In Part 77 of LWF’s blog series, LWF will begin to look at the statutory requirements for fire risk assessment in healthcare buildings. In the meantime, if you have any questions about this blog, or wish to discuss your own project with one of our fire engineers, please contact us.
Lawrence Webster Forrest has been working with their clients for over 25 years to produce innovative and exciting building projects. If you would like further information on how LWF and fire strategies could assist you, please contact LWF on freephone 0800 410 1130.
While care has been taken to ensure that information contained in LWF’s publications is true and correct at the time of publication, changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact on the accuracy of this information.