The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning companies responsible for carrying out legionella Risk Assessments of the need to ensure that their work is thorough and accurate.

The warning follows conviction of a Berkshire-based water treatment company for carrying out inadequate and misleading surveys at nursing homes. As a result, vulnerable residents at the homes would have been at a heightened risk of contracting legionnaires disease, a potentially fatal form of pneumonia.

They were fined £24,000 and ordered to pay costs of £17,276.

The company were commissioned to carry out legionella risk assessments at Nursing Homes operated by Craegmoor Healthcare in Tredegar and Llangattock.

A subsequent routine check of the nursing homes revealed there to be inadequate controls for legionella at these premises, and the focus moved on to the work carried out by The Water Treatment Company.

“Elderly nursing home residents are at greater risk from the bacteria so it is imperative that safety critical surveys are adequate.

“Fortunately, there was no evidence of any outbreak of the disease, but there is a clear responsibility to those companies carrying out specialist work that they need to carry out adequate surveys and provide accurate information and Legionella risk assessments are no different.”

It is important to ensure the Organisation you use to carryout your survey’s are registrered with the Legionella Control Association. If the Organisation is not registered with the Legionella Control Associaton you could be putting yourself and staff at uneccassry risks, and you may end up with a substandard risk assessment or poor quility service.