Taranaki Base Hospital is being upgraded. Photo / Tara Shaskey
Taranaki Base Hospital is being upgraded. Photo / Tara Shaskey
A hospital hostel that does not have sprinklers but sleeps up to 50 visiting doctors, nurses and other staff poses a “serious fire risk”, documents obtained by the Weekend Herald reveal.
The risk was identified as “major” by Taranaki health authorities. No money has been found to install sprinklers, butTe Whatu Ora says a review has now concluded “there is no immediate need for them”.
All regional health authorities (formerly DHBs) keep high-level registers that track the biggest actual or emerging risks that they, staff and patients face.
Registers for most regions were previously released to the Weekend Herald after an Official Information Act request in February, but documents for Taranaki, Canterbury and West Coast were provided only this week.
Those reveal one of the major risks at Taranaki was “hostel fire risk”.
“The 3rd and 4th floors of the Barrett Building is used as a hostel for visiting doctors, nurses and other staff and students. Although fitted with a fire alarm the building lacks any sprinkler system,” a summary warned.
“As many as 50 people can be sleeping in this facility. This is a serious fire risk. All other ward units where patients stay overnight are fitted with sprinkler protection systems, but not in the hostel, where apparently it is not a legal requirement.”
Hospital management have been asked to approve putting sprinklers into the hostel, the document states, “but cost and budget have meant little prospect of being progressed”.
In the longer term, the hostel is slated for demolition.
Gillian Campbell, Te Whatu Ora’s interim hospital and specialist services lead for Taranaki, said the hostel had recently had a “full review of its fire regulation requirements to ascertain where upgrade work is required”.
“The hostel does not have sprinklers and the review confirmed there is no immediate need for them to be installed. This is because the review confirmed the hostel can continue to be used at this time with its clearly marked exits, fire alarms and fire hoses on each floor so it is not deemed to be unsafe.”
Fire safety is in the spotlight after the Loafers Lodge tragedy in Wellington, where several people died after an alleged arson at the hostel. The building didn’t have sprinklers, and wasn’t required to under the building code.
The fatal fire at Loafers Lodge in Wellington has focused attention on fire safety. Photo / Sunnie Chan
In Auckland, less than a third of boarding houses - a category including lodges, hostels and backpackers - have fire sprinkler systems.
Other major risks listed on Taranaki’s register make plain the enormous strain on the health system.
Those rated as “extreme” include out-of-date cooling equipment that “could result in complete failure of our IT systems”, with cooling outages occurring regularly.
Another is “potential for adverse outcomes for patients on the surgical wards due to staffing, skill mix and FTE [full-time equivalent] deficit in Wards 3A and 3B”, with delays for specialist appointments and surgeries also risking harm.
Canterbury’s risk register, from last December, lists “increased risk of harm from falls in rural hospital”, “neonatal service capacity”, “sexual assault service roster gaps”, “nursing shortages” and “bed capacity”.
For the West Coast, extreme risks included “weakness in governance, systems and/or processes leads to patient safety being compromised”, and “workforce fragility and shortages impact service delivery”.
Te Whatu Ora said an entry on the risk registers does not suggest that “actual failure or harm has occurred”.
“However, the registers are tools, among others, we use to assist in identifying actual or emerging risks, with a view to mitigating or preventing them from occurring altogether,” the authority said.
“As working documents, our risk registers are regularly reviewed, and if risks cannot be eliminated mitigation strategies are put in place wherever possible to reduce risks so far as is reasonably practicable.”
Last month, the Weekend Herald reported on risks identified in other regions, including vulnerable IT systems, cramped and outdated buildings, and “excessive” delays to surgeries and treatment.
Te Whatu Ora’s own register had a number of “extreme” risks, including being “unable to deliver the transition, associated culture and accountability change in approach and the benefits of the health sector reforms at the scale and pace expected by key stakeholders”.
