Case Studies

MasterCard Worldwide | Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa providing personalised support for visitors and staff with mobility problems which is crucial, not only in terms of accessibility, but also with regards to complying with necessary legislation

The evacuation chairs have been installed by Escape Consult Mobiltex (S) Pte Ltd at MasterCard Worldwide | Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa to provide a safer escape for visitors and staff with mobility problems in an emergency.

Ms Ho Ping Yin, Global Facilities Management at MasterCard Worldwide for Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, said: “These evacuation chairs have been widely purchased by our offices in Europe, the US and Middle East as an evacuation device in compliance to our global human resource and security policy that apply to all our offices worldwide including Singapore. There is a legal requirement for our office to comply with the US law for the provision of Evacuation Chairs in accordance to the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations, Disability Act, Health Safety Act which we understand does not apply to Singapore law."

John Ng, Managing Director at Escape Consult Mobiltex, which distribute the chair in Singapore, said: “Evac Chair (evacuation chair) is classified as a Class 1 Medical Device in the UK/EU and carry the CE mark. The evacuation chair is widely used by the Members (Regulators and Industry) of the Global Harmonization Task Force from countries which have ‘matured’ MD controls i.e. USA, EU, Australia, Canada and Japan. These countries have regulations for the used of evacuation chair as an evacuation device to evacuate people who are mobility impaired or people who disabled in evacuation situation, in accordance to the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations, Disability Act, Health Safety Act. However, such regulations are not widely adopted yet in this part of the world including Singapore. Evac Chair is internationally accepted as a means of stairway evacuation for persons with reduced mobility and is also falls under the definition of a medical device as in the First Schedule of the Singapore Health Practice Act."