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| Paul Grundy Chief Medical Officer UHS NHS Foundation Trust Photo: UHS |
UPDATE: A response from Corporate Affairs has now been received, but it is not very helpful and no response to each individual and direct question has been received from either the CEO or CMO, nor Corporate Affairs.
Please sign Andrew Pope's petition for sprinklers here.
Andrew Pope says:
"When I contact people directly that I have been in touch with before, including David French about Park and Ride, I expect a direct response from them directly.
And not a feeble response from PR people trying to gaslight patients, staff, local residents and firefighters. I will be going back and asking for a direct response - and not for the first time.
Despite the non-response, it seems that Mr Grundy is now away. So others have been asked to respond in his stead.
I have sympathy that they have been dealing with a Major Incident, but this is somewhat self-inflicted when insufficient fire safety was in place before the Major Incident. The cost of the Major Incident could have been much reduced with better fire safety in place.
I heard similar excuses that these PR people at the Hospital have given now, as compared with the Labour-run Southampton City Council 8 years ago when I put them under pressure after the Redbridge Towers fire. And the Tory Leader of Kensington Council at Grenfell.
The PR response totally justifies the petition that I have created, because the Hospital seem to think it is acceptable to not do it because they are not required to by law or regulation.
Local people think otherwise - the petition has received good response in its first week, both online and offline. Please sign it, if you have not already, and share it."
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Co-Founder of Southampton Independents Andrew Pope has been asking questions of the senior executives of the Trust Board at the Southampton General Hospital (SGH), also known as University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. Andrew's follow-up letter to the CEO David French and Chief Medical Officer Paul Grundy, is below:
Dear David and Paul,Please answer urgently the questions that were sent to you before, and followed up on 2nd February. I have repeated them below.I asked Joe Campbell, via Emily Hudson of the BBC, to ask about sprinklers and the response on the BBC South Today Monday before last seemed to be that patients might get wet, equipment might get wet and the building(s) are old.Where did those rather flippant and unhelpful answers come from please? PR people or from the Trust Board?1. Were there sprinklers where the fire broke out? The BBC broadcast to say there were not. Please provide more information.2. If there were sprinklers, did they contain the fire? No, see 1.3. If there were sprinklers, why didn't they put the fire out? No, see 1 and 2.4. Will the hospital review fire safety in this building and across the hospital estate, and install sprinklers? If so, where, by when?5. If there were electrical, medical or other reasons why sprinklers were not appropriate for that location, please provide those.I have asked to speak at the next Trust Board, but have not received any response. And the same at the Council of Governors."
On sending the follow-up letter, an auto-reply email suggested that Mr Grundy is on significant leave. To be clear, the CEO was also asked and no reply was received.
The letter also mentions Andrew Pope's credentials on the topic, and record in Southampton on campaigning on fire safety.
Andrew Pope chaired the Southampton City Council Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee when he led an inquiry into hospital transport, the report of which mentioned a Park and Ride as well as other recommendations that Andrew followed up on. He also wrote his Masters degree thesis on "How Democratic Are NHS Foundation Trusts?" where he interviewed 60 people on their views on the topic.
Andrew also led the campaign for sprinklers to be installed in all Southampton City Council tower blocks, months before the Grenfell Tower disaster in London and after the fatal Shirley Towers fire in 2010 and the near-miss Redbridge Towers fire in 2017, where thankfully nobody died. As documented elsewhere on this website, both Southampton Labour and Kensington and Chelsea Conservatives claimed that residents did not want sprinklers. Labour or Tory, same old story, residents said.
In 2018, six months after Grenfell, Andrew brought BBC Radio 5 Live's investigative journalist Adrian Goldberg to Southampton, showing Adrian major fire safety failures in Council tower blocks. These failings were described as "disgraceful" by fire safety expert Dr Stephen Battersby in the radio programme. A short video is here on the BBC website.
As reported by the BBC in 2017, after the Grenfell disaster, "Sprinklers would have saved tower".
"A fire safety expert previously contracted to work on Grenfell Tower has said sprinklers would have stopped the fatal fire from spreading.
Paul Atkins said sprinklers give people a "99% chance of survival" and would have stopped flames taking hold."
Sprinklers are not mandatory in all hospitals and care homes in England. So as with his successful campaigns in and around Southampton, Andrew Pope has started a petition. You can sign it here.
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| Redbridge Towers Fire in 2017 Photo: Southampton Independents |
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| Andrew Pope quoted in Daily Echo Redbridge Towers 2017 Photo: Southampton Independents |
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| Front page Daily Echo after Redbridge Towers Fire 2017 Photo: Southampton Independents |
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| Andrew Pope when Southampton Independents Councillor for Redbridge Photo: Southampton Independents |