Posted By lewes I understand that ROSPA or the St Johns do manual handling training for care homes. May be worth you contacting either of these

Posted By Phillipe Evacuation chair is no good in this instance as the level from where the diabled person may be located is a lower ground floor, accessible by a lift and stairs. The lift cannot be brought up to the BS for fire safety without colossal cost and the MOE on the lower ground floor require ambulant staff and customers to ascend stairs via a sales floor or through a protected route through the back of the premises, which also leads up some stairs. Ambulant disabled essentially will be stuck, hence the need for the training. Place of refuge is no longer acceptable.

Posted By Rachael Powell Sorry I have had problems with my email account can you contact me again please?

Posted By steven bentham Below ground may be a dangerous position to be in the event of a fire. Its not training you need but a realistic assessment of your fire precautions and is it necessary to have someone with such mobility problems below ground? I can't see how you can train someone to lift people up the stairs? If you are intent on maintaining access for people who cannot get up stairs then perhaps you need much better fire precautions. You've not said what the building is the expected fire loadings and the numbers of people involved.

Posted By Calum Clark We have similar problems and are close to buying the Transit 4 evacuation chair. It has the 'three wheeled wheels' if that makes sense and is desgned for upwards evacuation. Unfortunately, gravity means that you need at least two people two operate the chair but its a lot better than lifting a normal wheelchair (which if its motorised would be a nightmare). Training is, of course available from the supplier.

Posted By Frank Hallett No-one appears to be thinking about the actual character of the persons who may require to be evacuated from the lower level! People are not packages and will often refuse to be coerced into an unfamiliar mode of transport that is man-handled by unfamiliar people. And there are loads of other issues to address in conjunction with simply providing the equipment and allegedly trained assistants. There has been extensive discussion on this topic recently on this Forum; perhaps we should all re-visit that first? Phillipe, if you require some objective and impartial assistance, feel able to contact me direct. There may be a fee involved. Frank Hallett

Posted By Calum Clark I agree with Frank and Duncan. In my post above about buying chairs I should have also mentioned that we are upgrading refuge points and implemeting Personal Evacuation Plans. In addtion we will soon be recruiting and training volunteers. Our local fire brigade have been kept informd of our intentions. Limitng access to gound floors in our buildings is not possible. Evac chairs are only part of the solution for evacuating people with mbility impairments. You must address a number of concerns including; do you know where these people are; do they know where to go for assistance; do you have people to help them who know what they're doing; it will take time to effect evacuation; and what if you simply can't get them up or down, even with evacuation chairs, due to the nature of their condition. We've had to give this one a lot of thought and will probably be reviewing and refing the procedures for some time ater our chairs are installed.

Posted By Calum Clark We do have a couple of stairlifts to a room where lifts do not go. However, even if you overcome the problem of powering the stairlifts in an emergency, they take up a lot of space on a busy stairwell whether or not they are in use. Stiarlifts were considered for evacuation but unfortunately were a no go.