Work has begun on the new Hendon Medical Centre at Sunderland constructed by Weatherhead Construction for Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust.

The piling and ground beams are almost complete, looking towards the delivery of the main steel frame w/c 10 September 2007.

 The project is due for completion June 2008

 Please find summary below of new Fire Safety regulations which are coming into force April 07 

Approved Document B: Fire Safety

Significant changes to Approved Document B - Fire Safety are due to come into force on April 6th 2007. All applications received after this date need to comply with these new regulatory guidelines although there are a number of relatively minor transitional provisions as follows:
  

Transitional Provisions
Regulations 16B and 17C relate to requirement to provide detailed fire safety information (as required under the Regulatory Reform Act) and Clause 2A allows self-certification of certain works.
 

Regulations 16B and 17C
Where a building notice has been submitted to the local authority; full plans have been submitted (regardless of whether they have been approved); or an initial notice submitted before April 6th 2007, then the requirement to provide detailed fire safety information can be waived regardless of whether the scheme departs from the information deposited.
 

Clause 2A
Works to install heating and hot water service systems started before January 15th 2007 that are in accordance with a building notice, full plans submission or an initial notice are not eligible for the self-certification scheme provisions.
 

Schools
The DCLG states that ‘if BB 100 is not published by 6 April 2007, the relevant provisions of the 2000 edition of Approved Document B (incorporating the 2002 European amendments) will continue to have effect with respect to schools until such time as BB 100 is available. What implications this has for scheme submissions is uncertain.

General outline

Approved Document B is now 2 volumes: Volume 1: Domestic and Volume 2: Non-domestic. The draft versions - when combined - are over double the number of pages as the 2002 edition.

• Volume 1: Dwellinghouses is 80 pages and
• Volume 2: Buildings other than dwellinghouses is 155 pages

There are major changes in the compliance criteria and greater detail has been included. The new Approved Document B relies more on risk assessment than prescription although it also contains important alterations to:

• the means of escape;
• travel distance calculations;
• the acceptance of ‘alternative means’ (fire engineering), and;
• a greater responsibility on the building designer (or competent person) to provide detailed information on the maintenance and operation of the building.
   

Some of the changes are as follows:

Volume 1: Dwellinghouses recognises:

• the use of sprinklers (and other automatic fire suppression systems) in domestic situations, especially in lieu of alternative means of escape in certain circumstances (e.g. the ability to use domestic sprinklers as an alternative to a secondary escape from houses with a storey over 7.5m above ground level);

changes to Schedule 2A - competent person certification schemes

• that smoke alarms must have standby power sources and in extensions, smoke detection should be placed in circulations spaces
   

Additional information has been provided re:

• Resolving the conflict between ‘smoke control’ and ‘ventilation systems’;
• The ‘alternative’ method of compliance (ie, fire engineered approach) for loft spaces has been removed
• Compartmentation and cavity barriers
• Instead of the traditional 100mm step between integral garages and dwellinghouses, this can now be achieved with a 100mm sloping floor. NB: Apart from integral garage/dwellinghouses, “fire doors need not be provided with self-closing devices”
• Fire tenders should be able to access within 45m of all points ‘within’ a dwellinghouse.
   

Volume 2: Non-dwellinghouses, includes much of that detailed above and also other clauses as follows:

• Includes a new Regulation (16B) that details the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRO) that came into force in October 2006.
• Under the RRO, “Fire Certificates” have been done away
• Employers, building owners and others with responsibility for the premises and its operation must now ensure the safety of everyone who uses their premises including those in the immediate vicinity. The emphasis is now on the ‘responsible person’ to make the premises safe by using ‘preventative measures’.
• Other than this document, HTM 05 should be used for health care buildings and hospitals; and BB 100 should be used for schools.
   

Volume 2 includes:

• New calculations on fire escape stairs and escape routes;
• Specific guidance for disabled users and within tall buildings;
• Details for the protection of ventilation systems
• ‘Extensive’ underfloor voids must be protected with cavity barriers
   

Additional requirements include:

• Fire doors within flats need not be provided with door closers, unless the doors relate to flats designated ‘multiple occupancy’;
• ‘Open sided’ car parks must be constructed in non-combustible materials;
• Certain buildings with compartments over 280m2 should have fire hydrants;
• Buildings exceeding 900m2 with a floor level above 7.5m must have fire fighting shafts
• Unsprinklered buildings need to provide have fire main outlets within 45m of all parts of every storey over 18m

There is also new guidance on:

• the provision of sprinklers in tall (30m+) blocks of flats;
• the provision of sprinklers or free-swing devices in residential care homes;
• the provision of additional fire mains and the need to consider the impact of building design on fire fighting operations in tall buildings;
• inclusive design and the means of escape for disabled people; 
• a maximum compartment size for unsprinklered single storey storage buildings.

NBS is holding a seminar on Part B on 30 January 2007 in London. It is intended to be a forum where we can dissect the documents, explore design implications and examine the implications on professional liability as well as consultative opportunities. Find out more by reading the event summary now

The NHS last week opened the hundredth new health centre built under the Government’s NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) programme, a scheme aimed at improving community health services in some of the country’s poorest and most deprived areas.

Three new NHS LIFT health centres are opening inside the week, with the 100th building now open in St Helens (Longview Drive Centre) and further centres opening in East London (Frail Elders’ Centre) and in Thorne, Doncaster (The Vermuyden Centre). Over 70 further NHS LIFT health centres and GP surgeries are already under construction, while dozens more are being planned.

The £3 million Longview Drive Primary Care Centre houses a GP practice with an enhanced minor surgery suite. Patients can also access a wide range of services under the one roof, including health visitors, midwives and cardiac nurses.

Health Minister Lord Warner said:

“NHS LIFT is helping us deliver our vision of an NHS that treats more patients outside of large hospitals. The opening of the 100th new surgery shows that this vision is starting to become a reality.

“The NHS has never witnessed such a sustained investment in GP surgeries and health centres. Around £1 billion has already been earmarked for new buildings through NHS LIFT.

“These are purpose built facilities, where GP services are often on the same site as pharmacies and social services, and are not simple like-for-like replacements.

“The centres are more convenient for patients, particularly older patients and those with long-term conditions, as they offer more care closer to home.

“These modern, spacious and hygienic buildings also help improve the morale of staff working there and, help to attract more GPs into inner-city areas.”

Rather than simply replacing outdated facilities, NHS LIFT premises offer many services traditionally only found in hospitals. As well as GP surgeries, the buildings have delivered ’super surgeries’ where NHS patients can get minor surgery for hernia repairs, sports injuries and even vasectomies.

X-rays, medical tests, speech and language therapy, chiropody, physiotherapy and dentistry, are also now available in some of the new centres.

The NHS is continuing to make progress on the latest wave of NHS LIFT schemes. Seven wave four projects are proceeding towards appointment of their Private Sector Partner (PSP), their preferred bidder, and three of these are already at this stage.

The NHS LIFT programme is just part of the department’s major programme to modernise GP premises. Over 500 new one-stop health centres have been built since 2001, including those built under NHS LIFT. This will rise to 625 by the end of 2006 and hit 750 by the end of 2008.

In addition, during the last five years over 3,000 GP surgeries - almost one third of all surgeries - have recently been substantially refurbished or replaced.

The new community hospitals initiative, in which the Department will invest £750 million over the next five years, will complement this programme, providing many similar services, but on a bigger scale.

Notes:

1. Details on the three new NHS LIFT schemes are as follows:

Longview Drive Primary Care Centre (Halton & Knowsley PCT) - £3 million

• Health centre housing one GP practice (2-3 GPs) with an enhanced minor surgery suite, health visitors, midwives, cardiac nurses and a school nurse.
• Pharmacist and pharmacy technician attend the practice on a regular basis.
• Study areas for medical students and PCT staff
• Undergraduate Medical Students - the new development will allow it to apply for training practice status.
• Opened to patients on 6 November 2006.

East Ham Memorial Hospital - Frail Elders Centre (Newham PCT) - £14.6 million

• £14.6 million project that transfers services from the Sally Sherman nursing home and Plaistow hospital.
• Re-provision of services includes continuing care for the elderly, day hospital, elders resource centre, rehabilitation.
• Opened to patients on 7 November 2006.

The Vermuyden Centre, Thorne (Doncaster PCT) - £5.1 million

• £5.1 million centre built on a five-acre site.
• Contains 2 GP practices with 8 GPs.
• Also library, social services, housing advice, community dentistry, out-patient suite and some diagnostics including endoscopy.
• Open to patients 13 November 2006.

2. Developed in the late 1990s, NHS LIFT is the most extensive initiative in recent years to modernise the primary care estate.

3. In all, there are 49 NHS LIFT projects at various stages of development.

4. The 42 projects that have reached financial close have commissioned facilities with a total capital value of £951 million.

5. The Government has allocated £208m in Enabling Funds up to the end of 2005-06, to help kick start these developments.

6. One of the most effective aspects of NHS LIFT is that, while the department sets out the ground rules and provides the standard legal and other documentation, it leaves the actual planning of local facilities to those best able to plan them, namely, the people on the ground. The approach involves the local health economy - a PCT or a cluster of PCTs - developing a strategic plan that incorporates its local primary care service needs and relationships with, for example, the wider health economy and local authority services.

7. Based on the strategic plan, the NHS runs a competitive process to select a private sector partner for the next 20 years. The NHS and private sector then set up a joint venture company to manage the NHS LIFT project. They all own a share of the company and jointly have an interest in its long-term success.

8. NHS LIFT projects are all capable of delivering a number of new facilities and will provide new primary care facilities for some 50 per cent of the population.

9. The position of the wave four NHS LIFT schemes are as follows:

• Bolton, Rochdale and Heywood & Middleton (BRAHM): Eric Wright Group Ltd appointed preferred bidder
• Bury, Tameside and Glossop: Community Solutions for Primary Care appointed preferred bidder
• South East Essex: gbPrimaryCare appointed preferred bidder
• South Midlands: Currently has short-list of three bidders
• South East Midlands: Currently has short-list of three bidders
• South West Hants: Currently has short-list of three bidders
• Swindon and Wiltshire: OJEU stage completed and now working towards issue of Invitation To