Access to new unit difficult for firemen

Press, 17 November 1987, Page 3

Access to new unit difficult for firemen

Access to the proposed new neo-natal unit at Christchurch Women’s Hospital has caused some concern to the Fire Service, members of the Canterbury Hospital Board were told yesterday. The final sketch plans for the $1.6 million unit were presented for approval to the works committee yesterday by the board’s planning department.

Miss Margery Waight, the deputy planning officer, said that access to the new unit would be difficult for the Fire Service because of a covered

way to be built between the adjacent nurses’ hostel and the radiology department. The covered way would prevent the Fire Service from being able to drive freely around all the hospital buildings. However, both the neonatal unit and the covered way would have sprinklers, she said. “They (the Fire Service) don’t like it but they have no authority to stop us doing this — ideally what they would like to see is the whole hospital sprinklered,” said Miss Waight.

Only a small percentage of the existing hospital has sprinklers.

The Fire Service was also concerned at the safety aspect of “nooks and crannies” created by joining a new building to an older building, said Miss Waight. The problem is having a fire-fighter caught in one of those smaller areas and not being able to get out.

Locating the neo-natal unit elsewhere on the hospital site had been considered but was not viable, she said. “There is a land prob-

lem at Christchurch Women’s Hospital and we cannot do anything about it. A building at the front of the hospital was not acceptable to the hospital management team from an aesthetic point of view.”

The chairman of the works committee, Mr Bill Utley, said that the unit had to be on the ground floor.

“The siting of the unit has been given a lot of consideration — the problem is that we really do not have a large area to put anything on.”