Groote Schuur Hospital

Groote Schuur Hospital is a large, government-funded teaching hospital located in the City of Cape Town, South Africa. Founded in 1938, the hospital rose to fame as the institution where the first human heart transplant took place, conducted by University of Cape Town-educated surgeon Christiaan Barnard. Groote Schuur is the chief academic hospital of the University of Cape Town, Faculty of Health Sciences, providing tertiary care and instruction in all the major branches of medicine. The hospital has over 3,600 dedicated staff, caring for more than 560,000 referrals and in-patient admissions per year.

Pre-existing situation & UTCFS’s role

Groote Schuur Hospital required a major life safety system upgrade: its security infrastructure was outdated, not fully functional, and not compliant with the latest fire safety regulations. Being a very large healthcare facility, Groote Schuur not only required an intelligent fire detection system, but also a flexible solution to protect the occupants while safely guiding patients and staff out of harm’s way, if necessary. This would only be possible if the hospital had the means of getting the right information to the right people at the right time, in the fastest, most efficient way possible.

UTCFS’s solution

UTCFS’s EST3 platform was chosen for its ability to provide large integrated life safety solutions. As Groote Schuur required integrated fire detection, audio evacuation and fireman’s telephone system, EST3 was the perfect fit. The first phase of the system consisted of a staggering 64 fire panels, with more than 6,000 intelligent smoke detectors and 52 repeater panels. All audio is driven through two audio source units to over 1,200 speakers located around the hospital. One of the key features of the system is an alternate alarm transmission path. Should the main control room be compromised, an alternate data path is provided through a duplicate control and monitoring station that automatically switches on. To ensure this alternative alarm transmission path, there are two additional smaller control stations where the system can be controlled via PC Software. A second expansion phase is planned for the near future.