MILK SAMPLE REPORTS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29367, 21 November 1960, Page 17

MILK SAMPLE REPORTS

Board’s Criticism Answered

Whether information on milk quality and standards, obtained from samples tested under the Food and Drugs Act by the Health Department, should be classified as confidential was discussed at a meeting of the Christchurch Metropolitan Milk Board. In a letter to the board, replying to previous criticism about the lack of monthly summaries from his department, the DeputyMedical Officer of Health (Dr. W. I. Paterson) said that no written request had ever been made by the board and the arrangement had been entirely unofficial, a condition being that the summaries be regarded as confidential. Dr. Paterson said the monthly summaries had been offered to the board by the then Medical Officer of Health (Dr. A. Douglas) on the understanding that their content remained confidential. The board had published the figures in its minutes and iff ,a letter in December, 1959, had questioned the actions of the department regarding non-complying samples. Dr. Douglas had given instructions that the summaries were no longer to be available to the board. The last had been sent in October, 1959. Mr W. E. Olds, chairman of the board, told Dr. Paterson, who was present at the meeting, that there had been no rancour in previous criticism and Dr. Douglas’s non-attendance at the board’s meetings. “There was nothing sinister or vindictive meant in our comments,” he said. Dr. Paterson, discussing the monthly summaries, said that apart from one other private company in the Dominion, who paid for the information, the board had been the only body which had received it. Mr Olds: Is there any reason why this information should be confidential? Dr. Paterson: No, I see no rea.son, although, as this is probably the only board meeting I will be attending. I do not wish to commit any future medical officer of health to any unofficial arrangement. Mr Olds told Dr. Paterson. that the board would like any information the Health Department could give in relation to the tests. “If some or all of the reports are designed by you as confidential then they will be treated as such,” he said.