Selected Projects

Staffordshire Health Services Fit for the Future Project

A £400m investment programme involving the provision of new acute and community hospital buildings across two separate sites through PFI funding and a new combined maternity & oncology hospital building through ProCure 21.

Healthfire provided the fire safety design and fire strategy and lead negotiations with regulatory authorities, Trust advisors and other key stakeholders.

The fire strategy delivered against a number of fire safety challenges including:

• Fire engineering calculations to allow natural smoke ventilation system solutions for several atria.
• Justification for the omission of 5 staircases from the main development.
• Acceptance of extended escape travel distances and fire-fighting access travel distances through innovative use of compartmentation and fire-fighting facilities.
• Justification for the removal of automatic fire detection within the service voids.

Hexham PFI Hospital Phase III Extension

The £24m extension to Hexham General Hospital PFI development to incorporate a 30-bed ward, an Education Centre, Chronic Diseases Centre and a large Primary Care Centre, providing a new home for two local GP practices.

Healthfire provided the fire safety design and fire strategy including:

• Fire engineering calculations to allow a natural smoke ventilation solution for the extensive atrium.
• Detailed fire load calculations and information to allow the operational management to control the use of the atrium within the parameters of the smoke control system.

Technical authorship of HTM 05-03 Part M - Guidance on the fire safety of atria in healthcare buildings

The Department of Health commissioned Healthfire to provide a report assessing the impact of the withdrawal of BS5588 Part 7 on Firecode guidance and potentially the fire safety of atria in healthcare buildings.

Healthfire undertook the assessment and produced a report that concluded that additional guidance was necessary and provided a scope for the guidance required.

Following the earlier report Healthfire was commissioned by the Central Office of Information (COI)to provide technical authorship of a new Health Technical Memorandum (HTM) to be published as HTM 05-03 Part M - "Guidance on the fire safety of atria in healthcare buildings".

The brief for the new HTM project included:

• Developing an appropriate definition for an atrium as applicable to healthcare premises.
• Providing an overview of fire safety implications of atria in the healthcare environment.
• Providing general fire safety design guidance applicable to atria.
• Providing guidance of fire engineering techniques, their use and limitations.
• Ensuring industry & stakeholder consultation and final draft appropriate for edit and publication.

Bury, Tameside & Glossop LIFT project

The £30m Tameside and Glossop LIFT project delivers health and social care facilities across the Greater Manchester areas of Bury, Tameside and Glossop.

Delivering primary care centres at a number of locations with services ranging from General Practice surgeries, dentistry, community mental health and minor surgery.

Since neither Firecode nor the guidance of Approved Document B fully addresses the needs of such premises, Healthfire was commissioned to provide fire safety design and fire safety input for the primary care centres being developed.

Healthfire provided the fire safety design and fire strategy including:

• Liaison with clinical teams to establish the nature of patient sedation and potential impact upon patient evacuation.
• Fire engineering calculations to determine building evacuation time.
• Acceptance of the fire strategy basis utilising Firecode principles where appropriate combined with alternative solutions.
• Justification for the reduction in fire resistance to the atrium enclosure and associated glazed elements.
• Justification for the omission of sprinklers to the cafe concession.
• Justification for the removal of automatic fire detection within the service voids and a reduction in the provision of motorised smoke dampers.

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust - Fire Safety Management Review

Following the merger of Nottingham City Hospital and the Queen's Medical Centre to form the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, the unification of estates functions across the Trust began to take place.

At the time of the merger there were very different fire safety management arrangements across the two main sites, and a disparity in the level of fire safety investment.

Healthfire was commissioned to undertake a fire safety management review which looked in detail at the fire safety structure, policies and procedures to determine whether they were fit for purpose.

The conclusions of the review led to a programme of investment in fire safety management, and Healthfire was able to assist the Trust in the recruitment of a Fire Safety Manager and two Fire Safety Advisers to ensure that sufficient competent resource was in place to deliver an appropriate level of fire safety.

Healthfire continued to assist in the development of the Trust fire safety policy and fire safety procedures.

Technical authorship of HTM 05-01: Managing healthcare fire safety [Second Edition]

Healthfire was commissioned to provide a complete rewrite of the first edition of HTM 05-01 which had been published in 2006

The brief included for the consolidation of guidance from HTM 05-01 and HTM 05-03 Part A together with a need to rationalise the current guidance and remove contradictory statements

Following some earlier doubts regarding the availability of funding, the project received the go ahead late in the financial year, reducing the available project duration to a bare minimum.

Healthfire successfully completed the project, delivering a final publication that was both on time and under budget.