Legionella positive test result : Who needs to know?
Supported residential accommodation, retirement villages, aged-care, hospitals, and respite facilities are all care facilities that need to manage their Legionella risk. As operators of Care Facilities you have duty of care to minimise risk under the Public Health Act 2011.
As part of your risk management plan you may take routine water samples and test for Legionella. If a result comes back positive you should act on it of course, but do you need to inform anyone? A fact sheet from SA Health published in November 2023 gives some clarification on this point.
Duty of Care
If your facility operates a warm water system that recirculates water at a nominal 45 Celsius then you are required by the Public Health (Legionella) Regulations 2013 to take routine samples for Legionella from your warm water system and report any positive test results to your local authority using the form provided. This legislation does not require you to take samples from the cold water. It also does not require you to take samples from hot water systems with tempered outlets - that is TMVs / tempering valves.
Let's go back to the Public Health Act 2011 - and specifically section 56:
"A person must take all reasonable steps to prevent or minimise any harm to public
health caused by, or likely to be caused by, anything done or omitted to be done by the
person."
This section of the Act broadens your responsibility for managing Legionella risk beyond the scope of the Legionella regulations. If you have reason to believe there may be a Legionella risk associated with your facility then you should take steps to mitigate it. In keeping with the Public and Health Act 2011 the SA Health Fact Sheet includes cold, warm and hot water systems in it's scope. This legislation requires you to take water samples from hot and cold water if you think there may be a risk. If you have had positives in the past then a risk is present and you should take samples from hot and cold water.
Fact Sheet Summary
If you operate a Care Facility:
You should have a plan to minimise Legionella risk.
Undertake routine Legionella testing of the warm water if you have a regulated system.
Undertake routine Legionella testing of hot and cold water if you have reason to suspect there is a potential for contamination eg positive test results from the warm water system.
You should contact your local authority and let them know positive Legionella results whether they came from a regulated facility or not.
Plain Speak
If you're in health or aged care you need to manage Legionella and all the components of the system it might colonise (chilled water dispensers, ice machines, fountains, spa pools, humidifiers etc). Hot, warm, or cold water; you have a duty of care if you think there is any risk. if you get a positive Legionella test result from any sample tell local council immediately. If you've had positive Legionella test results in a warm water system you have every reason to suspect there is Legionella in the cold water too and you need to deal with it.
What if I don't live in South Australia?
Firstly, that's your loss! More importantly the Public health principles are the same regardless of your jurisdiction. Check out your local legal framework and I think you will find the duty of care remains the same. If you suspect there is a risk to public health from your facility then it must be managed whether it is directly specified by a regulation or not. If things go pear-shaped ignorance is not a defence, acting as a reasonable person is.
References
South Australian Public Health Act 2011
SA Public Health (Legionella) Regulations 2013
SA Health Fact Sheet: Managing Legionella risk and responding to Legionella detection in care facilities. 11/23.
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