Sentinel FOI release: Altnagelvin fire death risk

IN the second of a series of Sentinel document disclosures the paper today publishes relevant sections of a critical health estate report that found staff and patients at Altnagelvin faced a “very significant risk of death or injury” due to inadequate fire precautions at the hospital’s main Tower Block over the last decade.

The fresh initiative - a first for local media - was launched by the Sentinel last month when we published in full a hitherto undisclosed Derry City Council report on the stalled bid to move Londonderry’s CCTV monitoring centre to a new location last year.

Now we are publishing the sections of a recent Health Estates Investment Group (HEIG) Maintaining Existing Services (MES) report that refer specifically to the Western Trust.

The report, which has been obtained by the Sentinel, found that non-compliance with fire codes at Altnagelvin meant a higher risk of fire spreading in the hospital.

The report reveals that the fire risk at Altnagelvin was explicitly acknowledged as long ago as 2001 when a report found non-adherence to fire codes and standards for existing hospitals.

And a review in 2007 found that there was “a very significant risk of death or injury in the advent of fire to staff and patients using the Altnagelvin Tower due to inadequate fire precautions.”

The accompanying Sentinel report on the critical estate review can be read here: http://www.londonderrysentinel.co.uk/news/local/altnagelvin-patients-faced-fire-death-risk-1-4194863