Automatics and door hardware at Wansbeck Hospital PFI development

Providing safe access and emergency egress for any building with a high volume of staff and visitor traffic represents a challenge, but surely none more so than the demands of a large hospital complex. Particularly when compliance with Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), which comes into force in October 2004, is also high on the agenda. However, the specifiers, designers, facilities managers and others involved certainly rose to the challenge at the Wansbeck General Hospital in Ashington. Part of the Northumbria NHS Trust, Wansbeck is a major PFI hospital development and its new £20 million extension has won the ‘Best Designed Hospital Award 2003’.

Prominent Features

Three different automatic door types fitted throughout the hospital

A key element in aiding efficient hospital traffic flow, enabling fast emergency egress and helping to conserve heat within the building is the correct selection of door types for different situations. The ideal solution to meeting these three criteria is offered by automatic doors. They provide an efficient means of opening and closing without any need for physical contact – something that can present a serious barrier to many people with disabilities, the elderly and those with injuries – and they help conserve heat loss. DORMA, the UK’s leading supplier of automatic doors, offers an extremely comprehensive range of solutions and proved to be the choice for the Wansbeck PFI development. DORMA have a solution for practically every internal and external automatic door requirement and three different varieties have been fitted throughout the new Wansbeck extension – the DORMA ES90 sliding door, ED200i swing door and FFT automatic folding door operators.

Manual doors within the hospital incorporated DORMA cam-action closers: TS91, TS92, TS93 series, including EMF options, and BTS80 electro-magnetic floor springs and a variety of DORMA lock cases all of which were specified by Scott Beaven Ltd.