Helping to keep your residents safe during an evacuation

The sheer gravity of the unthinkable situation where a fire breaks out in a care home and planning, organising and executing the safe evacuation of your residents and staff, and what the consequences could be, must feel like a huge responsibility for all care home managers, proprietors and fire marshalls.

I can only imagine the scale of the operation to be undertaken – and yet it has all been brought back again to the forefront of our minds over this last week, with the sad news of another lost life of a young girl, with learning difficulties, in a care home, who perished after a fire broke out.

Everyone has the right to be evacuated safely during an emergency. This includes the most vulnerable residents of care homes, hospitals, and any other premises where people live who have impairments that could hinder their escape. Each and every fire situation is different. Therefore, each and every care home premises need to devise their own personalised fire evacuation procedure with speed and safety being the main priorities

The fire evacuation strategy should be created with detail and precision only after a detailed fire risk assessment for the care home has been completed, to ensure the safe exit of all personnel. Here at Hcsuk, we recently received an enquiry, from one of our lovely customers, who was updating their fire policy and having completed their risk assessment had identified the need for a ‘Fire Evacuation Kit'. This prompted them to ask for our help in sourcing this item for them.

As always, when a customer requests assistance like this, we go away and do our research and source a fit for purpose solution which best meets the customers’ needs. I have to say our customer is delighted with what we have found for her! We then wondered which of our other care home customers would also be interested to learn more about this great new innovation from Hcsuk to improve the safety of residents during an evacuation.

So, we are very excited to announce the launch of our brand new and exclusive bespoke Care Home Fire Evacuation Grab Bag - thoughtfully designed to assist your staff to evacuate your residents safely in an emergency, and look after their health and wellbeing both during and after the process.

 Our Care Home Fire Evacuation Kit contains the following important items for you:

• 20 x emergency insulated foil blankets – to wrap your residents in to keep them warm, protected from the wind to and help with any shock they may suffer.
• 20 x disposable rain poncho – for your residents to wear to keep them dry in wet conditions.
• 100 x patient identification bracelets plus 1 x marker pen – to enable your staff to identify and account for all of your residents after evacuation.
• 1 x travel First Aid kit – to enable your staff to administer first aid treatment for any minor injuries sustained during the evacuation.
• 1 x LED headlight, supplied with alkaline batteries for your fire marshall or person leading the evacuation to ensure hands free lighting wherever they are – invaluable in an emergency!
• 1 x Hi-Vis vest to identify a key members of staff in charge of the evacuation.

All of these helpful items are contained in a very handy backpack with hanging handle marked  'EMERGENCY KIT' which can be hung and stored conveniently in a communal area and is really easy to grab and put on at a moment’s notice.

If you would like to learn more about our exciting and innovative kit, or to place an order or view any of our other fire evacuation product solutions, please head on over to our website www.hcsuk.co.uk

Or you can contact Beckie today on 01773 713713 or email her at sales@hcsuk.co.uk

Please note we currently have limited stocks available so why not grab one (or two) now, while you can?!