FEATURE | HOW TO DEAL WITH A HOTEL CRISIS
Safety Executive (HSE), which is “essential
after an outbreak”. He says if the source of
the infection has been recognised, the HSE
will be involved and specific instructions
will be given which the hotel which “need
to satisfy before that notice is removed”.
“What I would say though is generally
irrespective of the premises in which the
outbreak occurred, there is very little
understanding of the required implemented
process within general environment
outside of healthcare, where there are far
more stringent requirements.”
He says there is little evidence of the level
of the implementation of the requirements
particularly with guidance documents that
have been issued by the HSE. “It is expensive,
it requires a lot of training, the right individuals
and because there is little auditing in the
hotel sector it is difficult to know how they
manage it and what level.”
PREVENTING AN OUTBREAK
Public Health England says mitigating the
risk of Legionnaires’ can be “as simple important. “Local Environmental Health and good control measures means the
as regular cleaning of shower heads to teams are the regulators for health and chance of having to deal with an outbreak
make sure scale doesn’t build up”. Hotel safety in hotels and can be contacted for will be quite low. “The hotel industry and
owners should be aware that controlling more advice.” many other sectors have driven down
Legionnaires’ via temperature control of
Morse says it is far better to “deal with
the cost of legionella risk assessment in
water and regular flushing of the water the risk before an outbreak occurs”, adding recent years,” he says, “and once in an
system so water does not stagnate is that an accurate assessment of the risks outbreak situation often the regulator is
in control and the hotel would be subject
to improvement or prohibition notice if not
prosecution at this stage.”
Koumi also says risk assessment
should also be “the first step” in
protecting a hotel from Legionnaires’
disease. “Its a legal requirement and there
are now very stringent requirements
for carrying what is considered suitable
and sufficient risk assessment which are
now underpinned by United Kingdom
Accreditation Service (UKAS)”
“Once hotels recognise the level of
risk it is then vital that they implement the
necessary precautions to control that risk
and take it seriously because although
you affect the trading position, it could kill
somebody. So there is a moral obligation
above the legal or financial obligation that
should be driving this attitude.”
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www.hotelowner.co.uk
September 2018