Chatswood Private Hospital

The building

Opened in January 2016, Chatswood Private Hospital is a state-of-the-art facility located in the Sydney north shore suburb of Chatswood. The hospital fitout accommodates the latest technology designed to treat adults and children requiring eye, ear, nose and throat levels of care. The hospital will be Sydney’s only dedicated private hospital for such surgical procedures. State of the art equipment and technology including six (6) operating theatres, one (1) laser procedure room, fourteen (14) first stage anaesthetic and recovery trolleys, sixteen (16) second stage day surgery recliners, and four (4) overnight beds.

The approach

Chatswood Private Hospital employs principles typical of a health care environment. From a fire and life safety perspectives, challenges and areas requiring key consideration include permanent occupant profiles and likely patient characteristics. The main areas of considerations with this facility included fire compartmentation and mitigation measures to avoid the potential spread of fire between compartments. Suitable methods of protection were adapted to building elements which were identified and analysed as potential avenues of fire spread. The adoption of active fire safety systems such an automatic sprinkler system coupled with passive systems to service penetrations between fire compartments provided a satisfactory level of occupancy life safety within the health care facility.