Report of the Commissioner of Public Health / Western Australia.

  • Western Australia. Public Health Department.
Date:
[1973]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Commissioner of Public Health / Western Australia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/226 (page 13)
    a Public Building. Plans were submitted for such a restaurant at the top of a high- rise building. The plans were not accepted because the width of the escape stair¬ ways or exits did not comply with Public Building Regulations. However, instead of correcting the width of the stairways the architect merely removed the small dance floor from the plans and so removed the construction of the whole building from the Commissioner’s jurisdiction. The removal of the dance floor did not reduce the fire risk or the number of people occupying the building. This sort of attitude emphas¬ ises the need for proper control of safety in high-rise buildings by a central authority properly equipped for such a function. In the meantime the Department continues to carry out its responsibilities in scrutiny of plans for new public buildings or alterations to existing ones. Problems arise because of unauthorised alterations to buildings or change of use of a building so that a considerable amount of time is spent by the inspection staff in supervising buildings used or suspected of being used as public buildings. The Chief Health Sur¬ veyor quotes a case in point where a part of a building was found to have been con¬ verted into a night club. It had no emergency exits. The proprietor was instructed to provide a rear escape staircase. Soon after it was installed there was a fire in the club involving the front staircase but 60 people in the club, who would otherwise have been in extreme danger, escaped by the rear escape stairway. Community Waste Disposal has been given considerable attention, particularly since the Metropolitan Water Board has put restrictions on large areas in and around the Metropolis because of the conservation of subsoil water for reticulation purposes. The Metropolitan Refuse Disposal Planning Committee has completed its investigation of Waste Disposal and its Report is being printed. Extensive sampling of food, locally produced and imported, continues to ensure its wholesomeness and freedom from bacterial or chemical contamination. The results are shown in Mr. Edinger’s report. In maintaining the standard of Food and Drugs the Department has met with a serious legal difficulty in that “ A Manual for Justices ” issued by the “ Royal Association of Justices of Western Australia Incorporated ” indicates that Section 208 of the Health Act and similar sections which deal with standards of food and drugs can be rendered null and void by the application of Section 24 of the Criminal Code. The Department has had to drop charges of sub-standard goods against persons who have used this Section 24 as a defence. It would appear that Section 232 of the Health Act should exclude the application of Section 24 of the Criminal Code to Food and Drug sampling, but if this cannot be agreed to at the level of “ A Manual for Justices ” then the Health Act must be amended to specifically exclude the application of Section 24, otherwise control of the standard of Food and Drugs will cease. STATISTICS BRANCH Dr. Marlene Lugg has given some indication of the esteem the standard of Hospital Morbidity Statistics in W.A. is held in Australia and elsewhere. The few tabulations presented are merely to indicate the extent of the information stored. As indicated by Dr. Lugg this store of data is made use of by researchers and administrators in various fields. The pattern of hospital morbidity statistics remains remarkably similar from year to year. Possibly the most interesting variation is the decline in the length of stay. This will now probably flatten out as hospitals reach a limit to which increased efficiency can reduce the time the patient stays in hospital. W. S. DAVIDSON, Commissioner of Public Health.