INSPECTION DETECTION
Health unit site expanded
Any questions about the cleanliness of restaurants, public swimming pools or your day-care centres can now be answered quickly thanks to a new online service launched Thursday by the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit. Every public inspection report, enforcement activity, legal action or closures are now posted online for nearly 5,000 entities across the area.
The new service follows a mandate handed out recently by Ontario’s health ministry to start publicly disclosing every inspection report and penalties against establishments for violations, said Phil Wong, inspection manager for the local health unit.
“We spent about a year developing the (web) site,” he said. “It was a fairly long project for us. We had to upgrade our software. Every health unit is moving toward this.” What can now easily be found online is the latest inspection reports for restaurants, pools, beaches or public services that include local spas, nail salons or hair salons. “For food establishments (the number of inspections annually) is often based on their risk ratings,” Wong said. “The most often are restaurants who receive one to four inspections per year — with complaints on top of that. “Child care centres or personal services are about one to two times per year.”
The health unit has 20 health inspectors in place that cover facilities stretching across Windsor and Essex County.
As part of the new inspection disclosure system, a new signage system will also be put in place which indicates the food location or facility has been inspected and passed with the latest date posted on the sign.
Wong suggested if no sign is posted at an establishment, a resident should quickly check online to see the latest status.
The new inspection report service can be found online at wechu. org/inspections. It is also mobile phone friendly.
The most recent inspections are already featured on the site, but the health unit is still working toward adding historical reports for each location.
“This will help the public make an informed decision,” Wong said. “It goes towards transparency. It’s always good to know about the different sites you will be visiting.”