ABLOY controls access at Ninewells Hospital
(17/04/2008)

High performance access control products have been at the heart of the security and safety regime at Ninewells Hospital, located on the western outskirts of Dundee, since it opened in 1974. Today, over 57,000 doors at the hospital, which is part of Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust and serves 400,000 people in Tayside and the North East Fife region of Scotland, are fitted with an ABLOY ® product.

As the hospital expanded, local locksmith Lock Shop & Security Services met the security, safety and value requirements of the health authority by installing additional ABLOY access control products including lock cases and a highly effective cylinder Master Key system.

Balancing the conflicting demands of safety and security is a key challenge within the hospital environment. Patients, hospital staff and visitors require free and easy access to those areas for which they are authorized, while the highest practical levels of security are simultaneously needed to protect people, medical supplies and equipment.

Access control offers the ideal solution to many security problems, the comparative low cost and practicality of mechanical locks means they are still preferred for many situations.

To address the potential compromise of security that can be caused by a loss of key control, a particular concern in large organizations where there can be a high turnover of staff, Lock Shop Manager Tony Rob installed a Master Key System at Ninewells. This flexible system controls access to specific parts of the hospital, is easy to administer and can be quickly and cheaply updated to reflect changes in access authorization for specific individuals.

Over the 34 years of the hospital’s expansion, it was not always easy to insure that the required ABLOY locks and master key system from Lockshop were installed on new build projects. To combat lock substitution, which can compromise the security and efficient running of the hospital, Ninewells Estates Department tasked Lockshop and Abloy UK to produce an illustrated, definitive locking specification for every door type in the hospital.

The Ninewells Locking Specification has now been used by architects for 10 years, helping them ensure that the maintenance cost saving ABLOY locks brought to the original building continue as the Tayside University Hospital NHS Trust expands the hospital.

Lock Shop Manager Tony Robb explained: “ABLOY products are well known for their high performance and durability, but equally valuable to Ninewells was the modular nature of ABLOY’s lockcases and cylinders.”

Ed McIntosh, Estates Manager at Ninewells Hospital commented: “The combined quality and modularity of ABLOY lockcases and cylinders makes them easier for my estates team to service and maintain, which is particularly important when you have such a huge suite of door locks to maintain over the whole hospital site.”