One might argue that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. There have been very few deaths from fire in general acute hospitals since free health care was introduced, and yet look at the potential problems. People who are very difficult to move in the event of fire, low staff numbers in some patient care areas, operations in progress and, historically at least, building stock that left a lot to be desired even though the use of small sub-compartments does form an important and valuable part of the fire strategy. So something must be done well, and I have always felt it was the staff reaction, based on the level of training they receive, which is a lot more than in other sectors. As part of your research, you might like to look at the %age of fires that spread beyond the item and also the room of origin. While that has got a lot to do with the level of AFD and the level of compartmentation, it must be an indirect reflection on staff response (or so I have always believed). Many years ago, I did an exercise to look at these %ages for hospitals, hotels, dwellings and (I think) some other occupancies, and I was impressed by the very low %age of fires that spread beyond the item of origin and the room of origin. It convinced me that the NHS is poor at patient medical care but really good on fire safety.
