IHEEM AE EVENT
this person must be totally and utterly independent. Many of the AEs out there – and I am talking from my own point of view – are not registered with IHEEM; to coin a phrase: ‘You could be a truck driver on the Friday, and an Authorised Engineer for Water on the Monday morning when you join a particular company'. That is totally wrong; you must have the experience, and the knowledge; there is no substitute.”
No substitute for knowledge David Harper said this ‘knowledge’ also included elements such as familiarity with the relevant HTMs, ‘and what they represent, and they talk about’, as well as 'the design side of it', the hierarchy in a hospital, and who is responsible to who, and who the duty-holder and Authorised Person in the hospital are. Equally, he said, one needed to know the Responsible Person, the Nominated Person, and the Competent Person, and who – ‘down at the bottom’, is the test person or tradesperson. He said: “You not only need to know the HTMs, but also the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act – Section 2, ‘Duty of care’, Section 3, 4, 5 and 6, 15 and 16, which makes the L8 law, and, of course, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, as well as the Approved Code of Practice, L8, which was derived from the paper written by me and published by the Institute, way back, all about the implications of the problems at Kingston District General Hospital Hospital. So, you have to know about the proof of the practices.”
While the L8 ACoP was 'not law', per se, David Harper said it 'was law' under the Health and Safety Work Act 1974; ‘under Section 15 and 16 you have to comply with equal to, or better, than a code of practice, and you’ve got to prove it.’ There were also the COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) Regulations to consider. He said: “Section 6 of these regulations states that any microorganism that creates a hazard to health must have a risk assessment carried out on that risk, which must be undertaken by a competent person fit for purpose to do that job.”
Water Safety Group
He added: “And, of course, from that come all sorts of considerations when you’re involved in a Water Safety Meeting in a hospital – such as the hospital’s water policy, the Water Safety Plan, and who’s responsible for what, where, why, and everything else that goes with it. While the AE is completely independent, from my experience as an Authorising Engineer from an insurance standpoint, they must have public and personal insurance indemnity, normally for up to £1.5 m-£2 m each.” He recounted a recent situation where an AE went into a hospital and maintained that as soon as he did so, the
40 Health Estate Journal August 2021
way’, he could supply it, the AE then simply became ‘a glorified salesperson’.”
Court case’s lessons
David Harper, who has a reputation as one of the world’s leading experts – engineering-wise – on water safety, and transmission of Legionella in particular.
hospital (automatically, by inference) insured him for his public personal and public iindemnity, an assumption that he said was ‘absolutely 100 per cent wrong'. He said: ‘You have to have your own insurance, and – talking with IHEEM’s CEO, Pete Sellars, when the next reviews of the AEs come up, which is every three years, their insurance will come into it. IHEEM does not insure anybody on its register; they must have their own personal insurance. Also,” he continued, “a lot of people call themselves AEs, and unfortunately are not on the register, and some of them that I’ve come across – certainly from the water point of view – leave a lot to be desired.”
New identity badge
To that end, he explained that IHEEM had decided to produce an identity badge, to be worn on a lanyard around the AE’s neck, incorporating the bearer’s photograph, IHEEM membership number, and the expiry date of the three-year insurance term. He said: “On the reverse you can have the IHEEM logo, and and all that type of information."
In summary, David Harper stressed that the right insurance was most important, while independence was critical. He said: “I’ve known a situation where there’s was an AE for water, who worked for a particular company, and thus could hardly be called ‘independent’; rather he was a ‘servant’ of that company, as the court calls it. The problem there was – in the eyes of the law – that if the hospital suddenly faced a particular issue for which it needed equipment, and this AE recommended a particular system or brand and it might cost £40,000, but he told the Estates Manager that, ‘by the
Before concluding, David Harper said he wished to briefly discuss a court case he had been involved in. He said: “It concerned a hospital in Great Britain, and a company, which the hospital employed, with an AE, who provided some very incorrect in information. Unfortunately, there was some fatalities in the hospital.” He continued: “The case ended up before a Crown Court judge and jury, and as an expert witness, I was asked to attend. I was put in the dock, and faced questions on some of the water safety aspects, and the AE who had caused the problems was also in the dock. I was asked by the barristers to question him on some technicalities to do with water. “Unfortunately, he didn’t come out of it too well. The hospital was also at fault, because it had not taken steps to ensure that this company, and its AE, were – as the court called it – 'fit for purpose'. The court found that the hospital had employed this company ‘willy nilly’; basically, the hospital team didn’t go through any insurances, or show any checks that the contractors employed were competent, etc, etc. So, when the jury returned, this company was heavily fined, and the hospital was also found to be at fault. If these people had been on the IHEEM register,” David Harper said in concluding, “there would have been no problem, because to be on the register, whatever discipline, you have to go through a peer review.”
With this he handed back to session chair, Pete Sellars, who thanked him for ‘a helpful and interesting insight into the perils of getting it wrong’.
A former London Fire Brigade firefighter, Mazin Daoud is Chair of IHEEM’s Fire Safety Technical Platform, and was recently appointed Fire Safety Lead at NHSE/I.
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