Medical Inspections

Electrical installations in the state of Victoria containing areas in new electrical installations, or alterations, repairs and routine inspections of patient areas in existing electrical installations where the organization/entity responsible for that electrical installation has determined that low-voltage medical electrical equipment will be used on a patient are required to be designed and installed to the appropriate Australian standards and guidelines.

Under the 2019 Electricity Safety (General) Regulations, a person would reasonably know that an area is to be used for medical treatment of a patient then the area must be wired according to the appropriate part of the applicable Australian standard.

Work on electrical installations or parts of an electrical installation where there are of patient areas, in the state of Victoria are deemed to be prescribed work and as such requires verification and certification by an “M” class electrical inspector, to provide for the safety and proper functioning for the use intended.

Patient areas include the installation of electrical equipment in homecare installations and transportable vehicles.

Verification of compliance extends past the initial installation of the electrical equipment, to routine testing on an annual basis, there are special requirements for the identification, inspection, and testing of patient areas.

Electrical installations inpatient areas shall be carried out in accordance with AS/NZS 3000, except as varied with the additional requirements of the Australian Standard. AS/NZS 3003.

The decisions made by the responsible organization/entity in determining the classification of patient areas need to be based on the medical procedures undertaken in each area. Advice on whether particular patient areas should be wired as body-protected or cardiac-protected electrical areas is specified in AS/NZS 2500. The responsible organization/entity should refer to the safe practice code in AS/NZS 2500 for advice on how these decisions should be based on the type of procedures undertaken in each area and the level of protection against electric shock afforded in the medical electrical equipment available for these procedures.