MD speaks at LCA Open Day 2017

Our very own Jennifer Newton was one of the speakers at the recent LCA Open Day which was held on Thursday 2^nd November 2017.

The event was a member’s oriented information day with various experts presenting in their chosen fields on Legionella and other water borne pathogens.

There was a full day’s programme which went as follows:

• Chairman’s Welcome
• HM Principal Specialist Inspector from HSE – Cooling Towers Intervention
• BSi Committee Member – ISO11731:2017 Water quality – Enumeration of Legionella
• Les Bekesi – System Design Considerations
• Committee Member – Other Water Borne Pathogens
• Committee Member – LCA Healthcare Standard (Compare & Contrast HSG274 and HTM04-01)
• Jennifer Newton – Legionella sample size changes to reporting requirements
• HM Principal Specialist Inspector from HSE – HSE enforcement rates in Healthcare
• LCA Vice Chairman – HSG282: The control of Legionella and other infectious agents in spa-pool systems

There were around 150 participants at the event from all parts of the industry. Jennifer’s talk generated some interesting debates on how to report Legionella results, with much discussion focussing on the sample size being used.

According to ISO11731: 2017, Section 10 of this standard (Expression of results), states the following:

Report the confirmed presence (or absence) of Legionella pneumophila and the presumptive presence (or absence) of other Legionella species. Report absence as “not detected” in the volume examined. Ideally report the serogroup of all isolates of Legionella pneumophila”.

For more information, please click on Legionella sample size and reporting to see Jennifer’s blog on our technical section with highlights from her presentation.