The client and their brief – Upgrading their Fire Detection System

The East Kent Hospital Foundation Trust is one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving around 759,000 people. They also provide some specialist services for a wider population, including renal services and a cardiac service.

Icom replaced and updated their entire fire detection system following the most recent evacuation procedures and health and safety requirements.

The Icom approach

After a full consultation with the Trust and an in-depth evaluation of the site, Icom was able to provide the right Wi-Fi fire alarm system for the hospital’s needs.

Working in an old historic building presented its challenges but the Icom team found the right solutions at the right time. Our team conducted preliminary work to access the required areas safely, installing lighting in the hospital’s undercroft. We donated this equipment free of charge so that our engineers could work safely and left it in-situ. This means other contractors will work in the safest conditions moving forward.

Working in an acute hospital also comes with technical challenges, including:

• Beaming the Wi-Fi signal through the building old structure – dating back to the 1930’s,
• Access to the wards,
• Patients’ safety,
• The inability to shut down systems whilst working.
• The fact that their fire system is linked to other major hospitals in Kent.

Icom is an accredited contractor for the NHS, making us the perfect company for this challenging, but rewarding, job. Our experts were able to overcome these difficulties and provide the Trust with the latest technology in fire detection systems. And, with our partners Apollo and Advanced Fire Systems, we found the perfect location for each of the 2,000 expanders in the hospital building.

Thanks to the good relationship between our director and the Trust’s Head of Engineering and Compliance, we worked in an efficient way. There was no impact on the patients’ safety and continuity of care during the three-month installation.

The Results

The Wi-FI Fire alarm system we installed at the Hospital is the largest expander Wi-Fi system in the country. We added great value to this NHS branch, not only thanks to this state-of-the-art system, but also thanks to your advice on how to future-proof their systems.

The Trust now has detailed drawings of their whole site, which they can refer to for future works.

They are looking at hiring Icom again to install the same fire detection system in other parts of their estate.

 

Read more about our Fire Detection and Fire Protection Systems.