CareHomeDeskCareHomeDeskWhat backup systems are required, how long they must last, and what your business continuity plan must cover.
A power cut in a care home creates immediate risks: loss of electric hoists and profiling beds (manual handling risks), loss of electric stair lifts (entrapment risk), loss of electric door locking (security risk), loss of powered medical equipment (clinical risk for some residents), and loss of heating, lighting and communications. Planning must address all of these.
Emergency lighting (battery-backed, minimum 3 hours) is mandatory. Electric fire doors must fail-safe. Any life-critical medical equipment must have individual battery backup. Beyond these minimums, a generator or UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) can provide backup for heating controls, key medical equipment and communications.
The business continuity plan must include a power failure scenario. It should identify all systems that fail in a power cut, the manual alternatives for each, which residents are most at risk, contact details for the Distribution Network Operator (DNO) and the generator service contractor, and escalation triggers for emergency transfer of high-risk residents.
CareHomeDesk gives you compliance checklists, maintenance logs, and contractor management tools built around exactly this kind of knowledge.