Fire Doors Replacement and Upgrade Works – Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Trust

We are proud to have successfully delivered a complex and high-stakes fire compliance programme across Birmingham Women’s Hospital and Birmingham Children’s Hospital, replacing and upgrading multiple doors and door sets to meet current fire safety standards and enhance passive fire protection across both sites.

Scope:

The project included the replacement of fire doors and the installation of passive fire protection in numerous blocks at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and predominantly within the Delivery Suite and Birthing Centre at Birmingham Women’s Hospital.

Challenges:

This programme presented significant logistical and operational challenges due to the live hospital environment:

• Working within occupied wards and clinical areas: All works were carried out while patients, staff, and visitors continued to operate across the hospitals. Activities had to be carefully planned to avoid disruption to patient care, ward routines, and clinical services.
• Tight timescales and programme constraints: The project required precise scheduling, often with out-of-hours working, to ensure works were completed swiftly without impacting hospital operations.
• Infection control and hygiene: Rigorous measures were implemented to meet infection prevention standards, including protective barriers, HEPA-filtered dust extraction, and controlled entry zones, ensuring patient safety was never compromised.
• Noise and dust management: All noisy or dust-generating activities were carefully sequenced and mitigated to minimise disturbance to clinical environments, delivery suites, and patient areas.
• Budget and time constraints: The programme had to balance high-quality installation with strict budgetary limits and tight delivery deadlines, demanding careful planning and efficient execution.

Outcome:

Despite the challenging environment, all works were delivered on programme and within budget, achieving a high-quality finish across multiple hospital blocks, the delivery suite, and birthing areas.

The project not only enhanced the fire safety and passive protection of the hospitals but also demonstrated how careful planning, strong stakeholder collaboration, and technical expertise can overcome the challenges of working in highly sensitive live healthcare environments.

This programme is a testament to the dedication and professionalism of the Novus site team, hospital estates teams, ward managers, and clinical staff, who together ensured that fire compliance improvements were delivered safely, efficiently, and with minimal disruption to critical healthcare services.