Hi All

 

A topical thought for you all.

 

(i) We are now quite a  large procurer of construction work here in Aylesbury and use external  architects (who for this thread shall be nameless) as designers. How many of you have experiences of using architects and how do you find their knowledge of evacuation issues other than “just get evac chairs”.

 

(ii) We have a policy of using evac chairs and have noted some weakness in a Stategy basing all evacuation of anyone with any physical disability at any time in an open plan "hot desk environment.

 

My question is how many of you have watertight evacuation policies and personal evacuation plans, and on review, how many are fit for purpose?

 

My thoughts are:

 

That training should be practiced regularly, (typically) every 6 months talking out each person for up to 2 hours per year.

 

That evac chairs should be serviced annually.

 

For someone with the ability to manoeuvre between a wheel chair and an evac chair with trained users evac chairs are preferable to death and a practical tool.

 

On review here at AVDC I have established the following weaknesses';

 

When the organisation has a flexi system and the helpers (identified in the PEP) are not about there are problems - resulting in the person having to work on the ground floor or from home is restricted to ground floor or  anywhere where level evacuation takes them to a point of safety.

 

That anyone with more severe disability who cannot  transfer themselves between both cannot be evacuated by evac chair and the above point applies. This can include larger electric wheel chairs that can be heavy.

 

That sufficient evac chair users should be trained up to cover sickness / leave / lunch / flexitime /meetings trips to loo and sandwich machines etc .from preferably  the sane floor- I have been told this can be up to 8 staff for full cover -  and remember someone has to carry down the wheelchair unless the employer stores one on the exit floor. If this is not possible competent people from other floors from above should be available - not from below as this means two way flow on staircases etc.

 

That the lift should be adapted so that it becomes the solution , not the problem - this means 1 hour fire protection and independent power supply - or that equal access should be afforded on the ground floor/floor with level egress.

 

Thorough review of our own plan relying on evac chairs in a more flexible operation means that it is very beaurocratic moving onto impractical and would welcome comment from colleagues how we can overcome the limitations with evac chairs. In effect we are designing a system that can never be 100% suitable.

 

I would welcome comment from those who agree and disagree because I may be overlooking something obvious- I know many of you are busy. The following thread has really provoked me - http://www.workplacelaw.net/forums/listComments/thread_id/256

 

ps - has anyone done a cost benefit analysis justifying a new build of a protected lift against evac chairs? I know a conversion of an existing lift is over £25K –

 

 

In short I appear to be the only one  with this view with the architects not wishing to enter into discussion – am I the exception!

 

Thanks

 

David