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| Andrew Pope After Council of Governors Meeting Photo: Southampton Independents (AP) |
After the Hospital's Trust Board refused to let him speak (yes, really) at their meeting, Andrew attended the Hospital's Council of Governors meeting. He still was not allowed to speak (yes, really) at the meeting.
At the meeting, Andrew's questions that he had to send in and put prior to the meeting in writing, were answered by the Trust Board and Council of Governors. These are two separate committees. The latter are elected to represent patients and staff.
None of the Governors spoke in support of Andrew's request for sprinklers.
None of the Governors asked questions of the members of the Trust Board present to hold them to account on fire safety.
Only the official response was read out as below, seemingly on behalf of the governors too who are supposed to hold the Hospital's Trust Board to account.
What do you think of all of this?
Do you agree with their answers?
Get in touch to tell us what you think. And if you want to get involved in the campaign, or our campaigning more widely, get in touch.
Andrew Pope's Question 1
Sprinklers save lives and property. In just a few weeks, over a hundred people - hospital staff, patients, and the public - have signed my petition for sprinklers at the SGH, and to make it mandatory in law. I received no direct response to my emailed questions to the Chief Executive and Chief Medical Officer about the lack of sprinklers in the part of the hospital where the devastating and highly disruptive Major Incident fire occurred that destroyed the endoscopy unit and which took firefighters hours to control and resulted in hundreds of patients being moved and huge disruption to the entire Region of the NHS. I asked Emily Hudson and Joe Campbell of BBC South to find out if there were sprinklers, and there were not. Instead, what amounted to excuses were made in writing to me by Corporate Affairs. I tried to ask at the recent Trust Board but the Chair prevented me from speaking - a member of the public at a public meeting of a public service, funded by public money. Will the Council of Governors ensure that I get a written answer from the Trust Board now please, instead of Corporate Affairs and public relations people?
Trust Board and Council of Governors Response
You have previously sent a number of questions to the Trust on this matter. The response you refer to in your question was provided from the Corporate Affairs email address, which is managed by the Company Secretary's office on behalf of the Trust Board. This response was provided on 13 February 2026.
As was explained by the Chair at the Board meeting held on 10 March 2026, the 'open' session of the Board meeting is a meeting 'in public' rather than a 'public meeting'. As such, members of the public attend as observers, not as participants in the meeting.
Andrew Pope's Question 2
Will the Council of Governors please commit now to ensure that sprinklers are installed in all buildings at the Southampton General Hospital, and give a deadline by which this will be done? This will protect patients, staff, firefighters, property and local residents. It will also save money and disruption, as confirmed to me directly by Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service when I spoke with them after the recent incident at Shirley Towers,
Trust Board and Council of Governors Response
"The installation of sprinkler systems at Southampton General Hospital would not be viable. There are a number of reasons for this approach:
Installation of sprinkler systems would go against technical guidance. Given the height of the hospital, guidance does not recommend the installation of sprinkler systems. In part this is because the fire service is able to tackle any fires below 32 metres.
The hospital has a working passive alarm system. This proved highly effective during the fire on 1 February 2026, alerting the Trust and supporting the safe evacuation of 502 patients.
Sprinkler systems cause extensive damage - whether through false activation or when in response to a fire. In the management of the fire on 1 February, there was extensive water damage, which has caused the Trust to have to take the ward below the site of the fire out of action for over six months to repair the water damage. Sprinkler systems do not solely address the seat of the fire and therefore the resultant water damage would likely have been more significant and widespread, which would have resulted in more beds and facilities being taken out of action.
The cost of retrofitting a sprinkler system across the Trust's estate would be tens of millions. This is not an effective use of public funds.
With regard to the minutes from the Council of Governors’ meeting held on 22 April 2026, these will be included in the papers for the next Council of Governors’ meeting approximately five days before the meeting which is scheduled for Wednesday, 8 July."
