Fire safety review likely

Press, 12 May 1987, Page 1

Fire safety review likely

By

SARAH SANDS

health reporter

Safety standards at Coronation Hospital will be reviewed after a delay in Government approval for replacing the hospital. The Canterbury Hospital Board works committee was told yesterday that new fire regulations required smokestop doors and sprinkler protection in wards for bedridden patients. At present some wards in Coronation Hospital do not have sprinklers. The board has not improved the hospital recently because it expected to receive approval for the replacement some time ago. Mr Bill Utley, the chairman of the works committee, said - that because of the delay the.board would have to review the need for safe patient accommodation. “Unless we get replacements in the near future we will have to face up to doing something about the safety standards. We have to admit 1 these buildings are substandard at the moment.” t ' However, putting in sprinklers would be very expensive, he said. “It would be stupid to spend $2 million or whatever to put them in then pull the building down in two years time. On the other hand, if it is going to be there another 20 years then we have an obligation to do something.” The Hospital Board wants to- replace the 117 beds at Coronation Hospital with a 90-bed geriatric long-stay unit at Burwood Hospital. But the Health Department Wants the board to justify again the need for replacing the beds. It says there are enough geriatric long-stay beds in Christchurch already and wants the board to investigate the feasibility of using beds in the private sector. Approval for a 60-bed geriatric long-stay unit at Princess Margaret Hospital was granted last week. This unit, worth more than $3 million, will take patients from the 43-bed Jubilee Hospital, which is of a similar standard to Coronation Hospital. - . - Mr Ray Cahsdale, the board’s planning officer, told the works committee that the unit at Princess Margaret Hospital was unlikely to be finished until IM#.