Cambridge Fire and Rescue Service has served an Enforcement Notice on Peterborough City Hospital over concerns about the fire safety of the building, according to a report in the Peterborough Telegraph. 

The paper reports that the Enforcement Notice was issued last month to reduce the risk while repair works, which were brought to a head after concerns were raised by the fire service last year, are completed.

In an email sent by Jon Anderson, Area Commander for Community Safety at the fire and rescue service, which has been released by the Peterborough Telegraph, he says: “CFRS became aware in December 2014 that there were problems with how the hospital had been constructed relating to fire resistance of the internal compartments.

“CFRS have been working with the hospital for over a year to try to resolve the issues via an agreed action plan.

“However, due to the lack of progress that has been made against the action plan, and the fact that it has now been discovered that the problems are at least four times worse than initially identified, the service has decided, in consultation with their barrister, that formal enforcement action is now required.

A CFRS spokesperson said: “We have previously been working with the hospital trust to try and resolve the structural issues that have affected fire safety by way of an action plan, however, now that we are aware that the defects with the building are more extensive and serious than originally believed, we have now taken formal enforcement action.

“We will continue to work with the hospital trust and support them to resolve the issues and fire safety officers are working with hospital managers to ensure the risk of fire is reduced as far as possible while we wait for the remedial work to be completed.”

Stephen Graves, Chief Executive at Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Following a review of the fire safety standards to which our hospital has been built, a significant number of issues were identified with the fire separation infrastructure.

“Work has been going on throughout the hospital since 2015 to both identify the scale of the problem and begin remedial action.

“The survey work has recently uncovered a more extensive range of defects than originally thought, which means that the work to rectify the problems will take longer than anticipated.

Original source

Peterborough Today