Looking for opinions on carrying a disabled person in her wheelchair. The wheelchair user was in a school building and taken up a flight of stairs on a stair lift, the type that is available when needed and hinges out from the side wall to form a platform for the wheelchair. When returning, heading for the exit the stair lift failed to operate so a couple of maintenance men were enlisted to carry the wheelchair user, in her wheelchair down the eight stairs. A risk assessment was in place and mentions use of the lift but not carrying down.

Was an on site RA carried out before the lift and were the two volunteers MH trained? If not and an accident has occured or is yet to be reported then you could be found at fault in any subsequent investigation. Also i am pretty certain that this type of lift falls to LOLER and a thorough Examination should be carried out every 6 months!! Hope this helps

Chris Afraid the old Lack of Maintenance applies here:-) If it fails it was not adequately maintained - even though serviced the previous day - there is much case law on this. The real question is actually posed by you yourself - why was the lift ignored as a mechanism for getting people downstairs? Some inspectors could push lack of adequate RA here if they felt so inclined Bob

But the key issue to me is that the emergency arrangements failed. Probably due to an inadequate risk assessment? These arrangements should have been made at the planning stage before installing the stairlift; maybe that proper emergency arrangements did exist but were not known or trained. I find it hard to believe that a stair lift would be installed for wheel chair users without thinking how we would get the person out in the event of an emergency eg fire or lift breakdown Chris did the lift have a battery back up and or manual operation facility, most modern stairlifts do. As xRockape states we do not have all the background information Steve

Chris, Consideration is required for staff/ visitors that require the use of a wheelchair, and a means of escape must be provide from higher floors. (Evacuation chairs, carry down), for staff and regular visitors a PEEPs (Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans) The plan must be tailored to their individual needs and is likely to give detailed information on their movements during an escape. Also standards plans for occasional visitors should be developed. And now onto the question regarding carrying down. An important issue to consider when planning means of escape for people who require carry-down by four people is that the width of the stair will need to be sufficient for all of the team to move freely and safely. A good document to look at is Means of Escape for Disabled Persons Guidance. Link below. http://www.communities.g...iresafetyassessmentmeans This should give you all the guidance and specifically discuses carrying down procedures, also information on undertaking PEEPS. Regards, Oliver

Chris, the point I and others are making here is that such readily foreseeable emergencies must be anticipated and planned for. There should be temporary fire-safe refuge for the non-ambulant (and people tasked with assisting the non-ambulant to that refuge) so that rescuers (who also have to be nominated and trained) can re-enter a building in comparative safety to complete the evacuation. In the above respects a risk assessment cannot be said to "be in place". p.s. "real fire" versus "drill". Drills are good to identify shortcomings in your arrangements - provided an actual fire doesn't beat you to it! Hence the importance of R/A.

Can I suggest researching the use of Evac Chairs? They would appear to be a purpose-built solution to the issue being discussed. If you need any other info on the above please contact me. A