Hi All,
A few months ago we had our Fire Officer in our department telling us we should change all our flowmeter tubing tailpipes to ones with an integral fire stop. We discussed this at length and concluded it would be an unnecessary waste of Trust funds as once the Nursing staff removed it to nebulise etc they would re-fit any tailpipe they could lay there hands on and not necessarily the one with the fire stop (not to mention we are a smoke free site that has never had a fire incident that has put our Oxygen pipeline at risk!).
Yesterday morning he was back explaining that the company who produce the tailpipe are now producing a flowmeter that has a fire stop within the body and that we should seriously consider replacing all the flowmeters within the trust as this is a significant safety feature that could avert serious damage if a fire were to start. This would cost a small fortune as apparently no discount is available – regardless of quantity – but he does appear to be gaining the backing of some very influential people within the Trust (I think it’s called ‘covering your back’).
Surely to activate this safety feature within a flowmeter not only the Oxygen delivery tubing would be on fire but quite possibly the bed, the patient, the flowmeter AND the dressing gown hanging on it! You would hope by this point the ward would have been evacuated and the Oxygen to the ward would have been shut off?
Am I completely missing the point here because I just don’t see the need ???
