Matilda Nepean Hospital

Matilda Nepean Hospital is a private hospital located in Western Sydney adjacent to Nepean Public Hospital, that delivers a fresh approach to sub-acute, longer stay hospital care. The 90-bed health care facility is a six-storey building including consultation rooms, gym, kitchen and hydrotherapy pool on Ground Floor, mental health inpatient units on Level 1 and Level 2, rehab inpatient units on Level 3 and Level 4 and two levels of basement carparking underneath.

As a premium health care provider, it is crucial that the hospitals design and fire safety strategy are delivered to high quality, so Holmes was called in to provide fire engineering services to improve occupant egress. We addressed this issue by producing a horizontal evacuation strategy as an alternative to conventional vertical evacuation to limit the spread of fire and smoke between zones, reduce the strain on staff undertaking the evacuation, and facilitate access to firefighters.

Other design aspects Holmes provided performance-based solutions for included:

• External wall junction fire proofing
• Sliding doors in patient care areas
• Separation of rising and descending flights
• Smoke detector coverage and sprinkler in the Main Switch Room

Holmes worked closely with the client and architect to help achieve the vision to build a world-class hospital that supports the health and wellbeing of Western Sydney’s residents.