Are water systems at your site experiencing challenges such as inconsistent temperatures, positive test results, or TMV failures despite servicing?
HC Legionella are here to help. We offer a broad range of services in the water hygiene space to ensure we provide you with solutions to your water system challenges, from simple solutions to complex works
Our stated goal is to manage your specific issues through to resolution. Our services range from Authorising Engineer (AE) Services, independent consultation, remedial work, and risk assessment. Our unique approach relies on our AE and expert plumbing teams working in unison to resolve issues others have struggled with.
Based in Ipswich and serving the South East, East Anglia, and Central London, HC Legionella specialises in Legionella and Water Hygiene control services for healthcare facilities, including hospitals, Care homes and Mental Health units, as well as commercial properties.
What makes HC Legionella unique is our combination of specialist skills, experience with complex systems, and genuine interest in solving problems. You can trust our team to address your water system challenges effectively, giving you confidence in our consultation services.
Sometimes you need another set of eyes to see the world from a different view; that’s what HC Legionella offer with our independent consultation service. We will come to your site, review your system, records, and data, perform some spot checks, and share new ideas on your water system challenges. Our team have worked with thousands of buildings over the years in helping to identify and resolve water system challenges; be that poor circulating loops, weak return systems or unbalanced hot water systems; the team at HC Legionella have seen it all and has a set of skilled plumbers on hand to complete any required remedial works if requested.
The function of our consultation service doesn’t always require a plumber; sometimes it can be a simple on-site fix, such as turning up your calorifier, opening some isolation valves, or making minor adjustments to your dosing controls. A consultation should be bespoke to provide you with the information needed to help resolve your site-specific challenges.
In Healthcare settings, such as Hospitals, Care Homes or GP Practices, HC Legionella really stand apart from the crowd. Our decades of experience give us a clear understanding of the challenges facing IPC teams, Estates, and Clinical Departments when water systems begin to fail. Not only is there risk to patients, but there is also a potential for clinical disruption. HC Legionella utilise our years of experience to work with the relevant parties to minimise this disruption to clinical operations and allow you to maintain your usual high standards of care.
One such example of this came in a Palliative Care unit in the Midlands; the site was having poor return temperatures on the hot water system and, following consultation meetings, it was identified that the system returns were undersized and thus provided poor hot water temperatures across the site; even being felt through poor TMV temperatures. The HC Legionella team upgraded the central return line in under a day, with minimal impact on staff, patients, or site visitors. The works were conducted in a safe, quiet and clean manner. We were able to limit patient disturbance by maintaining protected meal times, ensuring patients had quiet time for their meals, and allowing the ward to continue operating. By working with the Estates, Infection Control and Clinical Teams, we maintained our on-site visibility to a minimum whilst reducing the downtime of the water system by working in loft spaces and plant rooms as much as possible to minimise impact on those in their care.
Mental Health settings are where HC Legionella really stand above the market. Our Authorising Engineer has more than a decade of experience working with Mental Health Estates Teams; we understand the distinct challenges of working on these sites. From access challenges, site requirements and anti-ligature needs, we look at your site through your eyes with a Water Hygiene perspective.
Our knowledge helps us to help you understand the work of your teams and other third parties. During a recent consultation, reviewing service records for a mental health trust that had engaged a third party to undertake TMV Servicing across a 30-bed portfolio. A two- person team completed the work in a day; this felt a little ambitious, and the client asked us to audit the records. The site procedures stated that anti-pick sealant had to be used and must be dry before leaving the room; we know how long this sealant takes to dry, and the records did not support that it was dry before leaving. Furthermore, the time between TMV services seemed a little short; a full TMV service in these settings often takes 45-60 minutes to access, remove sealant and panels, and reinstall, excluding the strip-down and soak time of the valve in chemical to descale and disinfect.
Given the access requirements of this type of facility, it was expected that this site would have door-entry records. These were requested and reviewed against the third-party provider’s online system. Something was amiss. The times were short. Either the TMV had only been fail-safe checked, an unapproved sealant for ligature control had been used, or the anti-pick had been left unattended before it dried. This flagged several potential shortcomings by the third-party subcontractor. The information gathered was then provided to the Trust in a report for them to take forward with the service provider. This level of insight and knowledge, not just of water systems but also of broader site safety concerns, is another example of how HC Legionella can support managing your issues through to resolution.
Legionella risk assessments
One of the key parts of any risk assessment is to make sure that the person receiving the report understands what the report is telling you. It’s a classic case of “Is what I wrote what you think you read?” This is a serious point and one that is often missed. The reports produced at the end of a risk assessment are significant documents, and it can be easy to miss critical comments, observations and recommendations.
At HC Legionella, we work with you to ensure you understand our Legionella risk assessments. Our goal is to make sure you know what we found, saw, and what it means for your water safety, empowering your team to act confidently.
We can offer risk assessments for various property and system types, from small offices to multi-building estates for NHS Trusts or healthcare partners. From your 1-man office to your 2,000-bed hospital, we have the experience and skill to deliver a risk assessment that outlines your risks and helps you understand the Legionella challenges at your site.
This is why we hold a review meeting with you on completion of the risk assessment. We talk you through the findings and explain the language we have used; the guidance in the Approved Code of Practice, the HSE Guidance, or the Healthcare-specific guidance in the HTM04-01 documents drives some of this. We want to make sure you know your site, that you know your risks, and, more importantly, that you know what you need to do to manage and mitigate those risks.
On a recent project, we were approached to risk assess over 80 buildings for a single trust as part of a revised risk assessment programme. This was no small task. It required the HC Legionella team to work with the Trust’s Estates, Security, and Clinical Teams to ensure that all buildings could be accessed for an appropriate period of time to complete our tasks. We know that patients need time to be treated, to rest, and to recuperate. This is why we worked with the Trust to find the appropriate time to undertake each risk assessment. Many office areas and buildings were done out of hours to avoid disturbing staff; Plant Rooms were inspected in the evenings, and outpatient departments were approached in the evenings and on weekends, when patient levels are at their lowest. This included the Theatre and its associated air handling plant, which were accessed overnight with the support of site staff, given the requirement for sterile access after cleaning staff had finished in the areas.
The partnership approach in such a large project was key. A full scope of requirements was drawn up, and a regular reporting call was scheduled. Weekly TEAMS meetings giving the Estates teams an update on progress, findings and concerns noted. Patterns were identified, access challenges were reported, and they were resolved. By understanding the workings of the Trust, HC Legionella were able to provide the Trust with a continuous flow of information about its buildings, sites, and wards. Key problems were identified, and resolutions and mitigations were put in place to protect patient safety at the forefront of our work.
Working on smaller, short-term projects receives the same approach. It always starts the same way, with reviewing your existing documentation to ensure you have the appropriate management structure, training, and competence assessments in place. Have you defined your Duty Holder, Responsible Person and their Deputy? What about your Water Safety Group? Do you have one? Do you need one? HC Legionella will work with you to review this data and help you understand the steps you can take to improve your control over water hygiene.
Once we understand your structure, we will review your past monitoring records. How are your flushing records looking? What can we infer from your current temperature monitoring program? Are you on top of Tank, TMV and Calorifier maintenance? These are key metrics that help inform us on how you currently view and manage your risk. We often find areas of improvement; from a basic Allocation of Tasks against RACI to ensuring this document has names, phone numbers, email addresses, etc, for internal and external escalation of key information. A RACI defines who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed for each task, and often includes expectations for competence.
HC Legionella can undertake Legionella Risk Assessment in line with BS8580-1, the British Standard for this type of work. An IHEEM- registered company, HC Legionella is also a Member of the Legionella Control Association, giving you additional confidence in the services we provide.
Remedial works
If you have had a risk assessment completed, remedial works will likely be required. HC Legionella offer a wide range of remedial plumbing services to help support the completion of such works. Our Plumbing Team has a breadth of competence and experience in completing remedial works on an array of sites, from office blocks to mental health wards.
Once you have your risk assessment, you will likely have some issues to resolve. From dead-legs and blind ends to the refurbishment or replacement of key plant, the HC Legionella team are here to support you. The team understands healthcare and plumbing systems and the issues that often arise.
We know that it’s common for sinks and showers to be added and removed as the ward use evolves with patient needs. We know that sometimes the plumbing work is done by a non-Legionella specialist and that can cause problems; from basics such as Expansion vessels being installed horizontally instead of vertically (and sometimes upside down!) to TMVs being installed backwards with the cold feeding the hot supply and vice-versa; we have seen it all. Sometimes there is a simple fix, sometimes it requires a more intrusive investigation.
Servicing & PPM services
The key to water system control is the successful completion of pre-planned maintenance tasks. Through trained and competent staff who understand the “why” of our actions, HC Legionella are your ideal partner for your key servicing tasks as outlined in HSG 274 Part 2 Table 2.1 and HTM04-01 Part B Table 1.
Planned works should be well documented in terms of the process, procedures, and outputs to you. You should know who your supplier for these services is, as well as the names of the people completing these tasks on your site. Training and competency records for these staff are also required to give you confidence that the tasks being undertaken on your behalf are being completed by trained and competent people.
HC Legionella allows our clients to choose their reporting solution, whether software or paper-based. We are familiar with a range of software systems, including Records for Buildings, ZetaSafe, Micad, Collabit and LegionellaDossier. We can also record your data on good old-fashioned paper records for your filing system if required.
These records are key for demonstrating compliance and for use at your Water Safety Group meetings. This evidence, and knowing where and how to access it, can be crucial in audits or investigations. We always encourage our customers to maintain these documents fully, with an auditing process and procedure in place for future inspection or to help resolve any issues.
Plumbing and plant installs
From time to time, your system will need some plumbing work completing; be that major plant refurbishment and replacement or the replacement of a tap or shower. HC Legionella can help with both of these scenarios and everything in between.
Our portfolio of works includes significant Cold Water Storage Tank replacements, Calorifier replacements, and upgrades to system circulation loops, as explained earlier in the palliative care unit example.
When it comes to Calorifier upgrades and replacements, careful planning and discussion with the site are required. Most commercial buildings and all care sites need hot water to function correctly and as intended. Any interruption in supply needs to be planned for as short a time as possible, especially when it can impact care, production, or patient safety and comfort.
When HC Legionella were asked to scope out the replacement and upgrade of a Calorifier for a local NHS Trust, it was no mean feat. The plant room was in an enclosed part of the site, and patients and staff used the water system 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Interrupting the supply for a few days was not an option. Once the works were agreed at Board level, HC Legionella worked with Estates, Infection Control, Domestic Services and Security to first plan the delivery of the new unit, before discussing the best times to remove the old unit and replace it with the upgraded calorifier.
Fortunately, on this site, there was room for the new cement base for the new calorifier to be set and for the unit to be stored while the old unit remained operational. This allowed us to prepare for the install and system change before switching systems over.
Once the new unit was in place, chlorinated and prepared for installation, a date and time were discussed at the water safety group to minimise disruption to staff and patients. HC Legionella worked with all parties to agree on the best time for the switch in supply, along with a system disinfection beforehand to remove any residual bacteria before the new system went live. The project was agreed, and disruption was kept to a minimum as our skilled plumbers made the final system connections and verified that the supply, compliant temperature delivery and system balancing were completed. The system was offline for around two hours during the physical system changeover, and system control was achieved throughout the subsequent evening and night. Not a bad turnaround, even if we do say so ourselves.
Short term controls
When control is lost, and you have concerns about patient safety, then HC Legionella can help by providing and installing Point of Use filters to break the infection pathway from the water system to your system users.
These filters are an ideal tool when system control is lost or when a positive Legionella result is found. The filtration devices can stop bacteria from reaching the system user, breaking the infection pathway and preventing system users from being exposed to pathogenic bacteria, not just Legionella, but also Pseudomonads, NTMs, and Stenotrophomonas—a great short-term control. At the same time, disinfection or rapid remedial work is scheduled and carried out on your system.
HC Legionella can provide a range of filter solutions to meet your site needs, from medical- grade shower heads and tap filters to inline filtration and discrete solutions. Our service allows us to deliver filters and install them in a rapid timeframe. The units can be installed by our team or your own estates department; either way, you have the support and know- how of the HC Legionella team to guide you through the installation, exchange, and safe removal of these devices.
Once installed, we can work with your team to help justify the safe removal of filters to allow you to maintain service user safety, something that is even more critical in healthcare settings. We will work with your estates and facilities teams to deliver a safe water system before, during and after filtration so that patient experience does not suffer and service user safety remains paramount.
