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Residential Aged Care NSW: Sprinklers in Nursing Homes Made Compulsory after Quakers Hill Tragedy

on Thursday, November 21, 2013

Sprinklers must be installed in residential aged care facilities from January 1, 2013 after a fire in Quakers Hill nursing home killed nine residents and hospitalised others in November, 2011.

“From January 1, we will have a schedule in place ensuring New South Wales aged care facilities install sprinklers within the next three to four years,” said Planning and Infrastructure Minister Brad Hazzard.

 

Mr Hazzard described the new reforms as ‘critical’ after “the tragic loss of life in the November 2011 Quakers Hill fire.”Facilities will have until April 2013 to install sprinklers but will have until March 2016 if an implementation plan is provided by September this year. In exceptional circumstances facilities will be granted an additional one-year extension.

“This longer timeframe will provide flexible outcomes for facilities with limited resources including those in rural and regional areas” said Minister for Ageing Andrew Constance.

Facilities who do not install sprinkling systems by April 2013 will need to inform visitors and residents by placing information on their website and displaying signs in the facility.

Facilities without sprinklers will have to submit progress reports ever six months to an implementation committee and post the reports publically.

 

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