St John’s Hospital upgrades its fire detection system

When St John’s Hospital in Livingston, West Lothian needed to upgrade its existing fire detection system, the estates team turned to ADT Fire & Security, which installed the original system. ADT’s engineers worked closely with the hospital’s estate team to maintain the highest levels of fire safety throughout the upgrade and to avoid any disruption to the 24-hour working hospital.

As one of NHS Lothian’s hospitals, St John’s is a modern teaching hospital, providing a comprehensive and expanding range of services for the people of Lothian and surrounding areas. Based at Howden in Livingston, the hospital has a 24-hour Accident and Emergency department and specialist services such as burns treatment and plastic surgery. The hospital also has a full paediatric service, including an acute receiving unit, special baby unit, paediatric ward and a comprehensive range of outpatient services.

The safety of patients, staff and visitors is a top priority for St John’s Hospital. With its existing Minerva based fire detection system slowly becoming obsolete due to advances in technology, the estates team began work with ADT Fire & Security to upgrade to a fully digital addressable MZX system. The work began in December 2012 and was completed in March 2013.

Ian Fleming, Estates Manager at St John’s Hospital, said: “It is absolutely critical that the hospital is protected with the highest levels of fire safety.

“Upgrading fire detection systems in a large healthcare facility brings with it unique challenges; allowing work to continue 24 hours a day featuring high amongst them. However, we worked closely with the experienced ADT engineers to plan the best possible approach.

“Our site now benefits from the most robust and reliable fire detection system available, which is safeguarding the lives of our patients, staff and visitors.”

Digital fire detection systems allow for a more robust system – with signals from the fire detector to the control panel more reliably transmitted. These systems, such as the one installed in St John’s Hospital, also allow for a greater level of sophistication than their analogue predecessors.

For further information on the systems available for healthcare environments visit: www.adt.co.uk