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NHS managers from hospitals and primary care trusts across London have agreed a revised concordat with London Fire Brigade to help them work together to ensure health centres and hospitals comply with fire safety legislation.
The revised concordat was signed last month’s at London Fire Brigade’s training centre, where NHS staff had gathered to discuss ways of making the capital’s health premises safer.
London Fire Brigade says it has forged an increasingly close relationship with the health service since setting up the concordat in 2003 and the implementation of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
“The concordat sets out how we will work together and has so far allowed London Fire Brigade to make real progress where we identify safety issues that need to be dealt with,” said Steve Turek, London Fire Brigade’s assistant commissioner for fire safety regulation. “When we have seen fires in NHS hospitals there have been no serious injuries, which shows that effective fire safety measures are in place.”
The Department of Health’s fire policy lead, Paul Roberts, said: “The concordat has played an important role in raising fire safety standards across the NHS estate in London since 2003. This latest revision will ensure that fire safety remains high on the department’s agenda in putting safety and quality at the heart of the NHS. Despite the highly publicised fires that occurred in London last year – the Royal Marsden, Great Ormond Street Hospital and Chase Farm – there was no loss of life and no serious injuries, which demonstrates the commitment to fire safety in the NHS”.