Health and safety regulations and guidance require all risks from exposure to Legionella bacteria to be identified and evaluated.
Here, we discuss how “Legionella Risk Assessments” can be undertaken and managed incorrectly, in the form of the 7 deadly sins.
Lust - Why are their different prices for Legionella Risk Assessments?
If the same scope of risk assessment is agreed and the specifications are met, why do they vary in price between suppliers?
With organisations’ resources being finite, it is very tempting to opt for the cheapest risk assessment to save precious money. But be aware that if it is too good to be true, it probably is. Some risk assessments are used as the driver for follow up remedial work, this can be where the contractor will re-coup there losses.
Gluttony - Always agree the scope
It is important that the risk assessment scope is agreed at the project planning stage. This will ensure you receive the work you expect and you are not paying for anything you do not need. Risk assessments can be “over-spec’d” meaning that money and resource is wasted.
Is it necessary for a risk assessment to take water temperatures from every outlet?
A risk assessor would learn more about a system by examining temperature records over a period of time, (assuming that equipment used is calibrated and the person trained) instead of a brief snapshot. An appraisal of sentinel outlets should be performed, temperatures taken at those outlets, then a follow up investigation of surrounding outlets if temperatures are non-compliant, to find the solution.
Long lists of temperatures are not useful to anyone, problems and recommendations are, so do not pay for something you already do on a monthly basis, and also deplete your hot water system at the same time.
Greed - Why should I seperate remedial works?
Too many risk assessments are stacked with data and numbers. Details of equipment and long lists of assets with no assessment or evaluation following. As well as “satisfying” you that the assessor has “inspected” everything, the contractor now has everything they need to cost follow up remedial works. The assessment has become a quoting exercise, a short term gain for you but a loss in the long run.
Sloth - Legionella Risk Assessment: How often?
As discussed in the previous blog ‘Risks of not completing a Legionella Risk Assessment at the right time’, a risk assessment is not a “one off exercise” but a “live document”. Risk assessments should not be shelved as a tick box exercise, but regularly reviewed and updated as necessary.
By using a Legionella Risk Assessment Review tool, you will not fail to do what you should be doing, by acting in “anticipation of, rather than in response to changes”.
Wrath - Risk Assessors are their to help
Risk assessments should not be viewed as a critique of you and your water system, neither should a risk assessor be viewed as a hindrance.
Risk assessors are there to assess your risks and propose ways to eliminate or minimise these risks. The more information and help they receive the more accurate and helpful the risk assessment will be.
Do you have all water safety records and assets prepared for inspection?
Have you supplied the risk assessor with a competent escort who is familiar with the systems?
The risk assessment is critical to the preparation of the Water Safety Plan / Written Scheme, so the perspective that a risk assessor is there to “help” you and not use up valuable time and resource, will benefit you in the long term.
Envy - Risk Assessments should be specific
What works in one situation, may not work in another.
A risk assessment can be extremely generic, whether it has been copied and pasted text from guidance or that recommendations are taken from another property’s risk assessment.
A risk assessor will use their knowledge and experience to “make practical recommendations to control any risk identified to ALARP”, however, sometimes you may and can make alternative solutions, but that should not discredit the assessor.
Control measures should be specific to that system (not copied from guidance) and proportionate to the risk. They should also contain the views of the personnel involved in the operation and maintenance of that system.
Pride - Listen to advice from the professionals
A Legionella risk assessment is a requirement by law and should not be ignored. They are undertaken by people with specialist knowledge and experience.
Whereas you may know your water systems better than they do, their advice and recommendations should not be ignored. It should be full of ways to help minimise the risk of bacterial growth, but it may also include things that you do not want to hear.
Whilst identifying water hygiene companies to assist with assessing Legionella risk is relatively straightforward, how can you be sure that the services are fit for purpose and will help to discharge your legal obligations?
The answer, increasingly, is accreditation. The Water Hygiene Centre is one of only a handful of companies within the UK to have gained the UKAS ISO/IEC 17020:2012 accreditation for Legionella Risk Assessments, aiding competency, impartiality and integrity.
Read more about Legionella Risk Assessments >
Ignore at your peril, risk assessments can suddenly become a very important and useful document if the worst should happen.
Editors Note: The information provided in this blog is correct at date of original publication - October 2017.
© Water Hygiene Centre 2019
Image by Ekkapop Sittiwantana from Pixabay
