The NHS is turning 70!

5th July 2018

The National Health Service is turning 70 on 5 July 2018, so we thought it was the perfect opportunity to look how safety, in particularly at height, has changed over the years inside one of the nation’s most loved institutes.

H&S has improved vastly throughout the lifetime of the NHS, the pressures of day to day operations and budget cuts have put untold pressures on those responsible for completing maintenance tasks. The work in which Eurosafe carries out with various healthcare organisations helps deliver cost effective solutions to help minimise costly downtime. Eurosafe carries out compliance testing services on numerous hospitals and health centres around the UK. The work which we carry out helps ensure safe access can be gained to site critical plant.

Historically it was collective measures such as fixed or freestanding guardrails that offered edge protection on hospital roofs. This is generally the most common forms of fall protection. These types of protection are often ideal for rooftop situations as it allows multiple users to access the roof area without the need for additional personal protective equipment (PPE), and little training. The shift to more holistic buildings is increasing to maximise the return on investment and provide a better all-round experience to the patient.

The EU Workplace, (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations (1992) requires that “Every workplace shall have suitable and sufficient lighting” and that this lighting “shall, as far as is reasonably practicable, be by natural light”. This has led to more open plan designs incorporating glazing such glass balustrades and atriums to accommodate these regulations. Such items come with their own challenges in relation to on-going maintenance and often require a specific inspection regime to be considered. Glass atriums for example, often have abseil rails or abseil anchors installed to provide safe access as part of the cleaning strategy. This equipment needs to be regularly tested under LOLER by a competent person such as Eurosafe.

Mansafe systems are also now common place within the healthcare community as deemed more aesthetically pleasing and can provide safe access where collective measures are not suitable.

We have worked on many Hospitals, this is just a quick list of some of the hospitals we are proud to have worked on.