AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

AMENDMENTS OF PUBLIC HEALTH (PRIVATE HOSPITALS) REGULATIONS

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

No. 7 of 1969

The Minister for Health has amended the Public Health (Private Hospitals) Regulations to do away with the requirement that the joining between wall and wall and between wall and ceiling should be rounded in each room of a building to be used as a private hospital.  With modern cleaning and disinfecting techniques it is now considered that hygiene can be adequately maintained if the junctions of walls with the floor in all rooms are rounded.  However, the junctions of walls with walls and walls with the floor in kitchens and operating theatres will be required to be rounded.

The Regulations have also been amended by deleting all references to the Director-General and replacing them with references to the Director of Health for the Australian Capital Territory, who has been responsible for the administration of health legislation in the Territory since the creation of the position in 1966.

Two minor amendments have also been made to the Regulations; the first redefining a registered nurse to conform to the definition in the Nurses Registration Ordinance for the Australian Capital Territory; and the second to express the existing monetary references in terms of their decimal currency equivalents.