Published: Wednesday, 16th July, 2008 12:00
NHS urged to review decision on sprinklers
By Nicola Findlay
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Fiona Mackenzie, Chief Executive of NHS Forth Valley
THE Central Scotland Fire Brigade Union are calling on NHS Forth Valley to follow the lead of their Glasgow counterparts and install sprinklers at the new Larbert Hospital.
The union have blasted the Forth Valley Health Board for their decision not to install sprinklers in the new £30 million hospital and have accused them of putting cost before patient safety.
Instead of sprinklers the hospital will be fitted with fire resistant walls and doors to “compartmentalise” any fire.
However, the FBU have welcomed the decision by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to install sprinklers in the new Southern General Hospital and say NHS Forth Valley should do the same.
But the Forth Valley health board have refuted this argument saying that fire safety measures are unique to each building and it isn’t correct to compare the two hospitals, which are being built in a completely different way.
The Secretary of Central Scotland Fire Brigades Union, Gordon McQuade said, “We pointed out at the time that the excuses being put forward by NHS Forth Valley for not installing sprinklers were a nonsense.
“The public will remember they were told by the Chair of NHS Forth Valley in October that it might not be sensible to have patients and sophisticated equipment being doused in water and yet we have NHS Greater Glasgow fitting them in those very areas.
“Here we have one of the biggest ever building projects in Scotland and they are going to install fire sprinklers in the High Dependancy and In-Patient areas of their new hospital.
“The FBU always said that the decision of NHS Forth Valley was down to costs and we knew all along that the excuses being put forward by NHS Forth Valley were very poor and in our opinion the decision of NHS Greater Glasgow have simply confirmed what we knew.
“We once again call upon NHS Forth Valley to follow Greater Glasgow and fully protect the Forth Valley patients, staff and visitors to the Larbert facility by installing a fire sprinkler system.
“Why should the staff, patients and visitors in the Greater Glasgow hospital have a much higher level of fire protection to that of the Forth Valley hospital?”
Gordon McQuade added, “Sometimes there comes a time when you should just hold your hands up and admit you got it wrong.
“We do hope that NHS Forth Valley have now reached that point and that they stop digging even further into the hole they find themselves in on this issue.”
Fiona Mackenzie, Chief Executive, NHS Forth Valley, said, “The fire safety measures planned for the new acute hospital for Forth Valley are integral to the design and meet all current legislation, guidance and good practice.
“Fire safety measures are unique to each building design, and therefore the measures required for a high-rise building, built in a phased way, on an existing site, will be quite different from those for a hospital which is not high rise and is built on a green field site.”
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