Oxford Method Research Programme

  Conclusions

Establishing the level of fire protection and compliance with Building Regulations for existing structures has been difficult during the past 11 years as there is little background design detail now available to the designer and local hospital estates departments. There is also no fire certification available for structural elements to establish minimum levels of fire resistance. The only means open to the designer is to carry out an analysis of structural elements by taking core samples for testing or having an assessment carried out by a nationally recognized authority.

As adequate fire protection for both existing and new structures on congested hospital sites is an essential element in maintaining safety between buildings it was considered very important by the Royalties Group managing this project that if levels of fire resistance could be established through assessment this would be a positive help to both designer and Building Control Officers/Approved Inspectors on future schemes.

It was for the above reasons that the Royalties Group commissioned BRE to carry out an in depth examination of 2M and 3M design to see if it was possible to determine what level of fire resistance was provided for key structural elements within the existing buildings.

The BRE report clearly sets out the methodology of assessment and provides clear guidance on levels of fire protection provided by the various elements of structure. It is assumed in the report that the Oxford Method buildings have been constructed in accordance with the original design produced by the Oxford Regional Health Authority. Any deviation from the original design or changes in the structure since it was first constructed could have an adverse affect on the current level of fire protection provided to the building and would nullify the assessments set out in the BRE report.

The BRE report has not been able to confirm levels of fire resistance for all major elements within 2M and 3M buildings due to lack of detailed information but it does go a long way in establishing levels of fire protection to a number of key areas. These are explained and clearly set out in the report and highlighted in the table below. To assist the designer the table shows a comparison between the fire resistance of existing elements and current Building Regulation requirements