Sector

Bollards for hospitals and healthcare sites

Protecting entrances, ambulance routes and pedestrian areas while keeping emergency access open.

Black bollards lining the walkway outside a supermarket entrance, separating shoppers from the car park

Computer-generated image

What hospitals and healthcare need from bollards

Hospital and healthcare estates combine heavy traffic, vulnerable pedestrians and routes that must never be blocked. Bollards keep vehicles off canopies, glazed entrances and walkways, protect plant and gas installations, and manage who can use ambulance bays and service roads.

Most work on live healthcare sites happens around operational constraints: we phase installations, keep agreed routes open, and coordinate with the estates team on permits and buried services, which are often dense and poorly recorded on older sites.

Typical requirements

Entrance canopy and glazing protection
Ambulance bay and service road control
Protection for gas, oxygen and plant installations
Pedestrian routes from car parks
Out-of-hours installation
Planned maintenance of automatic systems

Things to check

Emergency routes stay open throughout: any post on them must be removable, retractable or automatic with an override.
Permits to dig and service drawings from the estates team come before excavation.
Colour and visibility matter for people with low vision; contrasting bands are recommended.
Night and weekend work is common to avoid clinic peaks.

Hospitals and healthcare: questions

Can you install without closing entrances?

Usually. We phase the work, keep an agreed route open and work out of hours where the trust prefers.

What about emergency vehicles?

We design the line so ambulances and fire appliances always have a route. Automatic bollards need a fail-safe and an override arrangement agreed with the site.

Do you work to estates permits?

Yes. We work under the site's permit-to-work and dig-permit procedures and provide method statements and risk assessments in advance.