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UK dental rules control 'risks from legionella'

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Dental team, get decontamination savvy!

Thorough guidance on decontamination in primary dental care should control any risks from legionella.

That's according to the Department of Health today in light of a case of an elderly woman who died from Legionnaire's disease after she contracted the infection from a dental practice in Italy.

The DH issued a statement today after the case was reported in The Lancet.

A government spokesperson said that it 'required practices in England to comply with best practice guidance on controlling the risks from legionella and to carry out a risk assessment'.

Doctors in Italy confirmed that the 83-year-old woman who died from Legionnaire’s disease contracted the infection from a dental practice.

The patient had only left home twice within the incubation period of between 2 and 10 days and both trips were to the dentist.

Samples of water were taken from the waterline, the tube that supplies water to dental instruments and analysed.

All three samples of the water tested positive for the Legionella pneumophila bacteria and the sample from the water pump was particularly convincing.

The Department of Health spokesperson said: 'There have never been any cases of Legionnaire’s disease traced to contaminated dental surgery equipment in the UK, but we will continue to keep all evidence under review.

'The Department of Health has thorough guidance on decontamination in primary dental care, requiring practices in England to comply with best practice guidance on controlling the risks from legionella and to carry out a risk assessment.

'The guidance is used by the CQC in their inspection programme for primary dental care premises.'

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Well that`s all right then.

ONE case out of THOUSANDS of European dental practices in how many years? Out of how many millions of treatment sessions? From a practice that sounds pretty grotty anyway if they were not flushing the lines.

So this proves that having taps that vent outside the plug hole, and no plugs, and no overflows etc etc are a necessary change to our working conditions. So the £1000 worth of plumbing I had to have done last year will be money well spent.

ONE case of an elderly gentleman in ONE practice.

Well that makes it all worthwhile.

My feelings for the poor Italian man, but really, if you want to save lives, stop 18 year old boys from driving cars with an engine bigger than 1 litre. You`ll save MANY more.

Posted by Andrew Adey 20/2/12 at 17:46

Only £1k? We spent £4k+. We're not NHS - so just guess who pays? Got it in one - the patients.

Posted by docholliday 20/2/12 at 18:32

docholliday wrote:
Only £1k? We spent £4k+. We're not NHS - so just guess who pays? Got it in one - the patients.

I`m sorry to hear it. I also had to pay in full. The plumber didn`t understand why he was doing these things and had to phone his own "helpline" for advice, and they`d never heard of it either. The only potential casualty was almost the plumber himself at the top of a long ladder outside. And yes - either the patients pay - or YOU do.

Posted by Andrew Adey 21/2/12 at 08:38

'And yes - either the patients pay - or YOU do.'
Quite. But unless you are a true altruist/saint...... if our capital expenses are forced skywards by idiotic dictat, our prices will also rocket. We won't hesitate to tell the patients (aka constituents, Mr MP!) exactly why, either!

Posted by docholliday 21/2/12 at 08:47

does cqc not ask for an legionella assesment ?- I looked,saw we had no standing water,never had a case in 30 years,and.....assessed there was negligible risk-job done!!

Posted by gordie 21/2/12 at 09:54

Hey! A few hours ago I had two "Thumbs up". Now I`m level again. So two people don`t like my comments? Why? I have no problem at all with the necessity for cleaning out water lines - the grot that builds up is horrendous. This practice weren`t doing it. I DO have a problem with much of the other tripe in HTM01-5.

I must assume that you both own or work for companies selling stuff for HTM01-05.

I doubt that you`re practice owners. Prove me wrong?

:(

Posted by Andrew Adey 21/2/12 at 13:04