FIRE RISK IN HOSPITALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25101, 17 December 1942, Page 4

FIRE RISK IN HOSPITALS

A correspondent who has written to us with reference to the need for rigid insistence on the provision of adequate facilities for escape from hospitals in the event of fire, raises a question which, in the light of the recent tragic occurrence at the Seacliff Mental Hospital, would seem to require investigation. It is alleged that in the case of at least one private hospital in Dunedin such provision does not exist—that there is not even an escape of the kind that is ordinarily attached to a boarding-house or hotel—and a not unreasonable surprise is expressed that such a state of affairs should be permitted. Our own inquiries, made in respect of this complaint, certainly suggest that, in the matter of fire prevention, control or inspection is inclined to operate by processes that are too indirect to be wholly effective. We are informed that a question touching the adequacy of fire precautions at an institution of

the type referred to may be brought by the inspector of private hospitals to the notice of the local medical officer of health, who in turn communicates it to the fire brigade authorities. The officers of the brigade inspect the building concerned and report back to the district medical officer, who, in due course, submits the report to the original source of the inquiry. The superintendent of the City Fire Brigade informs us that it has always been the aim of the brigade, following an inspection, to endeavour to have satisfactory fire equipment installed in an institution, with adequate fire escapes. It is puzzling to know why the need for such elementary and necessary precautions should require to. be emphasised at all. The law is explicit that no premises shall be used as a private hospital except under the authority of a licence issued by the Minister of Health, and that no licence shall be granted unless the premises are approved by the Director-general of Health as suitable for the purposes indicated in the application. The provisions for visitation and inspection which apply to public hospitals apply also to private institutions. 'ln these circumstances it is not easy to understand how any private hospital or nursing home might avoid compliance, before the issue of a licence, with the requirement to make satisfactory provision against the risk of fire. If there is evasion, despite the machinery for prior approval of the premises and for subsequent inspection which the Act provides, the assumption must be either thg,t the law is defective or that it is being loosely enforced.