Part 6: What your Healthcare Practice Needs to Operate Legally

There is a huge role of responsibility that comes with managing and owning a healthcare products and services. Along with the added responsibilities of employing staff and the financial and personal risks of running a business, you also have the responsibility of looking after your local community. A healthcare practice fitout can be a daunting event; ensuring the space and materials used meet legal standards along with any personal licences for any services or equipment you use are an additional responsibility of the owner, to ensure you are operating legally. Therefore, it is imperative that as a medical practitioner you’re planning in advance to make sure that your medical practice can be successful.

In this latest blog we’ll be continuing our refurbishment series. Expanding on the legal requirements needed before you can operate legally. We’ll be going over some of the essential requirements you’ll need to help you save time and get on track to opening your practice sooner. 

Registration with the Medical Practitioner Board

All medical students and doctors seeking to practice medicine in Australia must be registered. This includes operating as a general practitioner, specialist, or other similar allied health practitioners. This should be one of the first steps you take, because without being legally registered in your profession you will not be able to open your practice.

There are a range of different types of registrations that will match different levels of training and experience across different health care practices. These registrations will have slightly differing requirements, with a few mandatory elements. 

• Continuing Professional Development Registration Standard
• Criminal History Registration Standard 
• English Language Skills Registration Standard 
• Professional Indemnity Insurance Registration Standard 
• Recency of Practice Registration Standard

X-Ray Licenses and Certifications

The use of x-ray devices can be hazardous particularly when used inappropriately or unnecessarily. To protect the health and safety of all patients and staff from the harmful effects of radiation, your device needs to be tested by an approved certifier or assessor to make sure the equipment is up to Australian radiation safety standards. 

Every year or every second year your x-ray equipment needs to be certified, to ensure that the room, equipment, and usage of the devices is to Australian standards, and that safe practice is being upheld to. Along with this, any buying, selling, or disposing of radiation equipment and devices needs to be recorded on a national register, so all radiation devices are accounted for. 

Building Certifications

All health care practice buildings must adhere to the Building Act 1993, the act sets out the framework for building standards and the maintenance of specific building safety features. Focusing predominantly on the safety and health of people who use the buildings and places of public entertainment and in improving the amenity of buildings. Once you’ve met these requirements a building certificate will be created. 

Infection Control Certificates

Health practitioners must practice in a way that maintains and enhances public health and safety by ensuring that the risk of the spread of infectious diseases is prevented or minimised. These guidelines address how medical practitioners can prevent or minimise the risk of the spread of infectious diseases in healthcare settings.

Every medical practitioner must have the following documents to ensure that infection control regulations are being practised and upheld. 

• A manual setting out the infection control protocols and procedures used in that practice.
• Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare published by the National Health and Medical Research Council. 
• The current Australian Dental Association Guidelines for Infection Control. 
• The Australian and New Zealand Standard: Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising reusable medical and surgical instruments and equipment, and maintenance of associated environments in health care facilities. 

All of these documents must be either available in hard or digital copy for all staff workers and health practitioners. 

If you are planning or considering a refurbishment of your existing practice or you want to set up a new practice, consilo’s team of specialists are ready to talk you through it. We work closely with you to create the space you want, and we think of all our projects as unique collaborations between ourselves and our clients.