Mike McColl, pictured, managing director of the security panel manufacturer Securiclad, highlights the importance of a ‘last line of defence’ when protecting healthcare facilities.
Theft of computer equipment worth £188,000 from Ipswich Hospital – including 50 laptops and 370 desktop computers – saw four men convicted last month and proved once again how vulnerable healthcare facilities are to crime. Indeed, hospitals can sometimes appear to offer ‘easy pickings’ for criminals, with assets such as pharmaceuticals, autopsy tables and defibrillators among the items to have been stolen from NHS sites.
More worryingly though, healthcare facilities, and areas within hospitals containing hazardous substances (including chemical, biological and radioactive material), blood supplies and high value pharmaceuticals, such as vaccines, can be at risk from more determined criminals.
Their motives may include financial gain, sabotage or obtaining materials for use in terrorist acts. The areas which house these items clearly need to be afforded a high level of protection against serious attempts at forced entry, where the perpetrators may be employing heavy duty equipment, such as power tools, to gain access. Server rooms should also be safeguarded with robust security measures. A physical breach in a server room, with critical equipment damaged or removed, can have serious consequences for operational integrity, as well as putting sensitive data at risk.
When protecting a healthcare facility, the ability to ‘retro-fit’ security is often a key consideration for older and existing buildings, however design measures should be incorporated into the design of a new or refurbished facility to protect high-risk areas. Methods such CCTV surveillance and high quality access control systems have their part to play, however the importance of an effective prime physical barrier to protect against intruders is paramount.
Unfortunately, the use of ‘traditional’ partitioning methods to form enclosures around high-risk areas, using materials such as plywood, plasterboard and insulation held within in a timber frame, may not offer enough protection.
Often, these traditional layering methods are not certified or accredited by an appropriate security body and offer little or no resistance to an attempted breach by determined criminals using high impact tooling equipment such as sledgehammers or drills. Protection at this level, however, is crucial in providing a barrier that will prevent entry.
Standard brick or block walls also come with the cost and labour pitfalls associated with wet trades. Plus, their associated onsite delays and the implementation of other traditional building methods can create major disruption to a facility. For absolute reassurance, any physical security measures – such as wall panels, ceiling panels and locks – used to protect critical areas of a healthcare site, should be accredited by a relevant certifying body such as the Loss Prevention Certification Board or The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) to guarantee both their quality and suitability for the application.
At Securiclad, we’ve developed a modular panel manufactured to ISO9001, and achieving a number of ratings within BRE security standard Loss Prevention Standard (LPS) 1175. The system can be used to create a secure environment or partition within an existing structure, or be incorporated into a new-build, and therefore can be used to protect pharmaceuticals, servers or other sensitive materials. As a complete modular solution, it features wall, floor and ceiling panels.
The highest rated system, which offers a solution to LPS 1175 Security Rating (SR) 4, is designed to withstand serious attempts at forced entry from tools including drills, sledgehammers, disc grinders and jig saws.
Securiclad, which is CPNI-approved, is quick to install and is pre-finished, negating the need for any wet trades and keeping any disruption down to a minimum: this also generates cost savings associated with hot trades, turnaround time and on-site labour. The hygienic finish afforded to healthcare facilities by a modular panel system such as Securiclad is also important: it allows rooms to be cleaned, preventing contamination and the build-up of dust.
And measures such as modular panels can also address the security concerns created by co-location premises, allowing healthcare facilities to compartmentalise to a higher security level.
The modular panel has been used by the NHS Blood and Transplant Authority, which had identified the requirement for a number of new and upgraded facilities for the treatment and storage of blood products, including the shielding of contaminated blood.
Securiclad provided panel systems rated to LPS 1175 SR4 to create three bespoke secure rooms, retro-fitted to existing sites, and the rooms also incorporated LPS 1175 SR4 rated doors with side panels.
Securiclad was able to provide a hygienic finish and also ensured that all joins, fixtures, fittings and ancillaries achieved the required hygiene level too.
Our work to date with healthcare facilities, which also includes Guys and St Thomas Hospital, London, has illustrated that within this sector, there is a growing awareness of the importance of a ‘last line of defence’ in safeguarding critical equipment and high-risk areas from criminals.
And in an era of both heightened national security concerns and slashed budgets in the public sector – where hospitals can ill-afford to lose valuable assets – the kind of protection offered by an effective physical barrier, is all the more important.
About the product
Securiclad was launched as an extension of an existing product range made by its sister company, Isoclad, for more than 25 years. Made at Securiclad’s facility in North Tyneside, the system is delivered across the UK and is available as a turnkey solution, via approved and certified nominated installers. Visit www.securiclad.co.uk.
