Over the past year there has been considerable effort invested in revising the WAHFG for Engineering Services and you are invited to review and provide feedback on this new document.
The Guidelines were last released in 2017 (with minor clause number adjustments in 2021). Since that time there has been considerable advancement in the technical requirements and continually emerging needs in engineering within health care facilities. The current version of the Guidelines needs to be refreshed and the new document provides a comprehensive update.
The process for revising the Guidelines commenced with a comparison of the WA guidelines with equivalent documents across other states of Australia. In short, it was found that it was not appropriate to adopt any of the Eastern States guidelines for WA; however, there is significant relevant data that is of benefit and applicable here in WA.
It is recognised that the licensing requirements in WA for private hospitals is different to the Eastern States and there are aspects of the Guidelines to recognise this. The Guidelines remain a mandatory requirement to be applied for private hospitals and applied by briefed application for public hospitals.
The new Guidelines recognises the regulatory hierarchy of various Acts and Codes and aligns technical criteria with Victoria and NSW guidelines in the relevant section of the WA document.
Many aspects of the new Guidelines retain the foundation from previous issues, for example, the section number for the main engineering disciplines has been retained (Mechanical Services is still section 14, etc).
Some of the changes of note include:
clarity regarding application of WAHFG for facilities within the wide variety of licensed/ unlicensed premises or with licensed/ unlicensed services.
greater emphasis on engineering services being aligned with the clinical needs for the facility.
update to encourage better use of modern technologies.
additional briefing data aligned with Eastern States documents.
The civil and structural engineering aspects of healthcare projects are substantially guided by the National Construction Code and as such these sections have had minimal amendment in the new document. However, we seek feedback from interested parties on these sections.
It is intended that the new Guidelines be endorsed and formally issued in early 2025. The requirements of the new document will be applicable to all submissions granted Approval in Principle (AIP) after the date of release.
It should be noted the Architectural WAHFG is not being changed as part of the current update to the Engineering document. A separate review is currently underway that seeks to adopt the Australasian Health Facility Guidelines as appropriate and the WAHFG for Architectural Requirements will be amended as part of that process.
Join IHEA WA for a Guideline Review and Feedback Workshop on Thursday November 14, 2024.
Karen Ziegelaar
BUILDING REGULATION MANAGER
LICENSING & ACCREDITATION REGULATORY UNIT
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