Sector · health
Infection control and staged access in operating facilities.
Clinics, day surgeries, consulting suites, allied health and hospital departments across South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. Built beside patients who are already there.
The constraint
In a health facility, dust is a clinical risk.
Construction dust in an operating healthcare environment is not an amenity issue. It carries organisms, and the people on the other side of the hoarding are the least able to tolerate them.
This changes the way the work is planned rather than the way it is built. The construction zone is sealed and held below the pressure of the spaces around it, so that air moves in rather than out. Entry and exit happen through an anteroom. Air is filtered and exhausted away from clinical areas. And the pressure differential is monitored continuously, because a control that is set up once and assumed is not a control.
The health service defines the risk level for the work and the precautions that follow. Our job is to build inside that framework and to give the infection prevention team something they can verify rather than something they have to trust.
The rest of it
What else a health project carries.
Medical gases
Installation, modification and certification of medical gas systems are specialist, licensed work with their own verification regime. They are also frequently on the critical path because the certification cannot be rushed.
Imaging and shielding
Radiation shielding is designed by a specialist and verified after installation. It affects the structure, the door hardware, the penetrations and the room sequence, and it cannot be adjusted once the room is finished.
Essential and resilient services
Emergency power, uninterruptible supply, nurse call and medical monitoring cannot be interrupted casually. Every isolation is a clinical decision as well as a construction one.
Facility guidelines
Health projects are commonly designed to the health facility guidelines used in Australia and New Zealand, alongside the health service’s own standards. Building to a room data sheet is a different discipline from building to a drawing.
Finishes and cleanability
Coved junctions, sealed joints, impact resistance and surfaces that survive hospital-grade cleaning chemistry. Finish selection in health is a technical decision.
Commissioning and clinical handover
Rooms are handed over to a clinical team who need to be trained on what is in them, with the certificates in hand. We plan the handover as a stage rather than a day.
Certification
Who has to approve a health facility, and in which state.
A health or laboratory facility answers to more than the building code. Knowing which body signs off what, and when, is most of the programme.
Every state licenses private health facilities separately, and each health service also carries its own capital works and design requirements above the licence. On top of that sit the national design guidelines that most public and many private projects are designed to, and, for a testing or research laboratory, an entirely separate accreditation and containment regime.
None of these is a builder’s approval to give. What a builder can do is know the sequence, get the evidence collected while the work is happening, and stop a project reaching completion with a room that cannot be licensed.
| What it governs | Who holds it | What it means for construction |
|---|---|---|
| Private health facility licensing | The state health department in each of South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, under that state’s own health legislation. | Room sizes, adjacencies, sanitary and clinical provision are assessed against the licence category. A change of category mid-project changes the room, not the paperwork. |
| Health service capital works standards | The health service or operator itself. | Frequently stricter than the code on finishes, hardware, services and infection control. Ask for the standard at concept, because it is rarely volunteered. |
| Australasian Health Facility Guidelines | The design reference used across Australia and New Zealand. | Projects are designed to room data sheets rather than to drawings. Building to a room data sheet is a different discipline and a different set of checks. |
| Laboratory accreditation | The national accreditation body for testing and calibration laboratories. | The facility has to support the accredited method: environmental control, separation, and a documented performance record from day one. |
| Physical containment | The Australian and New Zealand standard for safety in laboratories, with a separate regulator where genetically modified organisms are handled. | Containment level drives pressure regime, finishes, penetrations, decontamination and the certification testing at the end. |
| Radiation and imaging | The state radiation regulator. | Shielding is designed by a specialist, verified after installation, and cannot be adjusted once the room is finished. |
Named by function rather than by instrument title, because titles and administering bodies change. Your project team should confirm the current instrument for your state and category.
The people on the other side of the hoarding are the least able to tolerate what is on our side of it.
Health facility · library image
Where we add value
What we are genuinely good at here.
Sequencing works so that a department keeps functioning. Decant, temporary arrangements, and handing back space in a state that can be used.
Health projects carry more specialist contractors and certifiers than almost any other building type. Holding that interface is most of the work.
Certificates, verification records, commissioning data and as-builts collected as the work happens, so the facility inherits a documented asset.
Clinical staff need to know what is happening tomorrow, not next month. Short, frequent, accurate.
Questions
Can you work in an operating clinical area?
Yes, inside the risk framework the health service sets. We build the containment, monitor it and give the infection prevention team the records to verify it.
Can you stage the work so we keep seeing patients?
Usually. Decant and staged handback are normal in health work, and they are designed into the programme from the start rather than added later.
Do you work with our specialist consultants?
Yes. Medical gas, shielding, and clinical planning specialists are typically appointed by the health service, and we coordinate to them.
What size health projects do you take?
Up to $20 million under a single contract. Consulting suites, day surgeries, clinics and departmental refurbishments rather than whole hospitals.
Tell us what has to keep running.
The clinical constraint shapes a health programme more than the design does. It is the right place to start.
Talk to a construction directorRelated
Where to go next.
- Fitout and refurbishmentWorking inside an existing building, including one that has to keep operating.
- Commercial constructionOffices, retail, hospitality and institutional work, from fitout to new build.
- Laboratories and research facilitiesContainment, ventilation and equipment loads, where the services are the project.
- How we workHow we price, procure, administer and report, described as mechanisms you can test.