Care homes

[Guest]

Since October 2001, the Government has moved the burden of responsibility for funding nursing care for care homes residents from councils or individuals to NHS PCTs.

Does this mean that care homes have to comply with the DH Fire Safety Policy statement as the residents are effectively NHS patients?

[Colin Newman]

This will always be a thorny issue.  The distinction between nursing care and social care is becoming increasingly blurred.  

The clearest defining criteria that can be applied are wheter or not the premises in question are owned, managed or occupied by the NHS.   If the answer is yes, the DoH fire safety policy should be applied.

If the answer is no, the issue becomes less clear.  The determining factor is whether the premises is used for the treatment and/or care of NHS patients.  One could argue that we are all NHS patients, but the intent of the fire safety policy is to determine whether those occupying the premises are there as a direct result of their NHS treatment or care path.

When this part of the policy was written, the NHS were making increasing use of private hospital provisions and had just started sending some patients abroad for treatement.  It was seen reasonable to ensure that the fire safety standards applied to premises traeting such patients should be commensurate with the standard of Firecode.

I'm not sure I've moved this much further forward, but I don't believe the answer is ever going to be Yes or No, more likely to be a Depends!

[Brian Catton]

One of the main issues currently is the provision of NHS beds in Residential Homes (. I dealt with two such homes recently and found that the city council were happy to accept HTM 81 standard in the NHS occupied part. However there are anomolies such as which staff takes charge in case of an emergency and what training standards are required.
Also the fire alarm requirements can be different.
I believe with the necessary consultation with both occupiers a compromise can be reached that will ensure the safety of all patients.

[DaveH @ KWL]

We are in the process of constructing a extension to a Care Home that results in bedroom windows being within 1.80m of an external escape route.  The cill height cannot be raised to above 1100mm high as this would contravene the Regulations established by the registration body and obviously need to open.  Is there anything else we can do as Building Control are concerned about this restricting safe passge past in the event of any fire.  There are other escape routes at alternative points around the building.

[Chris Houston]

Dave,

Thanks for joining.  I'd suggest you start a new topic in the Fire Safet section of the website.