Jo Makosinski speaks to Bonnie Chu of Wates to explore the challenges facing estates managers in ensuring compliance with fire regulations in healthcare settings

Following the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017, it became clear there was a need for the Government to step in and change legislation for high-rise buildings (HRBs) so that such a tragedy never occurs again.

And, building on the recommendations within Dame Judith Hackitts’ Independent Review of the Building Regulations and Fire Safety, published in May 2018, the Building Safety Act received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022.

It takes forward the commitment to fundamental reform of building safety by strengthening the regulatory system and ensuring greater accountability and responsibility for fire and structural safety issues throughout the lifecycle of buildings.

Legislation provides a laser focus on quality, with building regulations front and centre.

Under the legislation building owners will be required to manage safety risks, with clear lines of responsibility for safety during design, construction, completion, and occupation of high-rise buildings.

It will also require a ‘golden thread of information’, with safety considered at every stage of a building’s lifetime, from design to occupation.

Managing risk

And building owners will need to demonstrate that they have effective, proportionate measures in place to manage safety risks, and will need to register their buildings.

Significant incidents which cause loss of life or injury will need reporting to the Building Safety Regulator, which will sit within the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 will also be amended to ensure tougher sanctions for non compliance and those who do not meet their obligations may face criminal charges.

These changes are having a significant impact on hospital estates and facilities managers as, while they primarily focus on residential buildings, the introduction of a new regime for ‘higher-risk buildings’ of at least 18m high, or with at least seven storeys, applies to many hospital tower blocks and some care home units.

Of particular note for new or existing healthcare facilities looking to undertake variation or expansion works will be the proposed new gateway procedure.

This is intended to ensure that fire safety plays a key factor in the design and occupation of buildings and will need to be factored into the planning stage for any new construction project.

Lessons learnt

So, what can trusts do? And how do they ensure they do not falling foul of the new rules?

To address this issue, Bonnie Chu, design director at Wates, is developing a White Paper, due to be released later this year, which will explore the challenges with fire compliance on healthcare estates.

Developed in conjunction with HLM Architects and fire and risk consultancy, OFR; the document will be informed by a series of roundtable discussions exploring the challenges that healthcare providers are facing with achieving fire compliance; their experiences in delivering positive outcomes while working in live, clinical environments; lessons learnt; and some of the unprecedented challenges facing the NHS.

Chu said: “We had some great discussions, sharing lessons learnt, including the complexity of hospital estates, experiences with managing expectations upwards and with staff/patients/visitors, and funding challenges, such as prioritising where to spend the funding.

“It was clear that NHS trusts are ALL facing similar, if not the same, challenges.”

She added: “We believe the buildings and spaces health services operate from should enable them to expand, develop, and enhance the valuable work they deliver for the patients in their care, without the worry of fire compliance issues and the serious risks associated with inadequate protection for staff, patients, and visitors.”

Compliance

Through her research she has identified four common challenges facing healthcare estates managers when it comes to fire safety within their estates:

• A lack of accurate estates information
• Lack of compliance with current statutory recommendations
• These are not typical capital projects
• Stakeholder management

She said that while most trusts have fire risk assessments, the key to compliance, and ensuring the safety of all building users, was an up-to-date fire strategy for existing facilities.

She added: “Are we giving enough importance and emphasis of having an up-to-date fire strategy for retained estates?

“New-build projects will have a dedicated fire strategy, but what about retained estates?

“How do we expect estates team and fire consultants to undertake fire risk assessments without a strategy?”

And she called for greater collaboration and a focus on fire safety from the very start of any building project.

“The resounding message from our round table events was that we must accept the traditional approach to procuring capital projects does not work for these types of projects and that early cross-industry collaboration on projects is essential to driving forward change and delivering the outcome efficiently and effectively.

Mitigating risk

“The discussions always circled back on the need to collaborate and work together from the inception of fire compliance projects – get the client, designers, fire engineers, and contractors together so we all understand and develop the right affordable solutions to mitigate and engineer out fire risks where possible.

“Is this perhaps a return to what design and build is meant to be – the contractor comes on board early with their design team?

“I would like to think that having been an architect, and now working for a main contractor, this is where I’m best place to drive this collaborative approach to ensure we achieve success in these complex projects.

“Every trust is different and their experiences are differing, so we need to develop a strategy that works for them and starts breaking down what needs to be done, sooner rather than later.

“We also need to consider the estate as a whole, rather than just pockets of it.”

Her research comes as reports of fires and fire safety issues at hospitals across the UK continue.

A growing problem

In March of this year figures from NHS Digital revealed a concerning rise in fire incidents recorded by NHS trusts, with 1,372 fires reported in the 2022/23 period.

This marks an increase of over 18% from the previous year, translating to almost four fires daily across the NHS.

One of these incidents, in June 2023, led to patients and staff being evacuated from Watford General Hospital after a blaze broke out in a basement electrical store.

And earlier this month patients were moved from a stroke ward at Cornwall’s Bodmin Community Hospital after an independent fire safety review for the hospital identified issues which meant planned works needed to be brought forward.

Central to fire safety compliance, according to Tom Ford, Honeywell’s national business development manager for connected life safety systems in the UK and Ireland, will be embracing digital solutions.

He said: “Fire systems require testing, inspection, and maintenance to continue functioning effectively, with smoke detectors needing annual functional testing and inspection.

“However, this process can be disruptive, requiring access to every room across an estate, and meticulous manual recording, which can result in inaccuracies and missed detectors.

“Digitising fire system testing and maintenance creates audit trails that allow users to prove that their sub contractor has completed a full functional test of the fire system.

“This helps service providers and estate owners save time on site, and provides real-time updates on the performance, testing, and overall compliance with local fire safety codes.”