The fire doorset’s vital role as a first line of defence

The correct specification, installation, and management of fire doorsets in hospitals and other healthcare facilities is vital in ensuring a safe and useable environment for staff, patients, and visitors, not to mention the additional disruption to patient care and risk to occupiers in the event of fire that inadequately maintained such doorsets could cause. Some of the statistics around fire safety in the UK are staggering. Last year, a Freedom of Information request answered by 147 local authorities discovered that 63 per cent of fire door maintenance and replacement did not progress as planned. Bearing this in mind, it is clear that there’s still plenty of work to be done to help ensure that fire doorsets are always viewed as a top priority.

Role of the Responsible Person

In line with the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order (RRO) 2005 and various HTMs, a healthcare estate’s Responsible Person must take reasonable steps to reduce the risk from fire, and make sure people can escape properly if an incident arises. For a healthcare site, this will include staff, patients, and anyone visiting the estate. These key decision-makers will be expected to: identify fire hazards; consider who may be at risk; eliminate or reduce risk where reasonably possible; provide fire precautions to deal with any remaining risks; take special precautions where there are flammable or explosive materials; record major findings from risk assessments and the resulting action taken, and review the findings regularly and when necessary