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General information, not building, legal or medical advice. Call Triple Zero (000) in an emergency, or go to the emergency department of your nearest hospital. The guidelines themselves are at healthfacilityguidelines.com.au.

SHEET A-105 · THE AUSHFG

The health facility guidelines, part by part

The Australasian Health Facility Guidelines (AusHFG) are organised into Parts on briefing, access, safety and infection control, Health Planning Units (HPUs) on common clinical departments and services, and Standard Components, each with a room data sheet and a room layout sheet. Part B is where a project meets them, because it covers turning what a health service needs into a brief for a physical building.

Sheet
A-105
Subject
The AusHFG
Scale
Not to scale
Date checked
8 Oct 2026
Sources
Foot of this page

Structure of the guidelines

Drawn as a register, the parts this sheet reads look like this. The guidelines are copyright, so this sheet describes and links them and reproduces none of their tables or room sheets.

  • Part B · Health Facility Briefing and Planning

    From service needs to a brief for the building.

    • Section 80 · General Requirements

      The service, policy and operational questions every project considers.

    • Section 90 · Standard Components

      What standard components are for; each comes with a room data sheet (RDS) and a room layout sheet (RLS).

    • Health Planning Units

      All held in Part B, with detail on common clinical departments and services, from inpatient units to medical imaging and a community health centre.

  • Part C · Design for Access, Mobility, Safety and Security

    Builds on the HPUs and Standard Components to take the physical planning and design further.

  • Part D · Infection Prevention and Control

    Revised with risk assessment at its centre.

  • Part E · Building Services and Environmental Design

    Retired.

Part B: briefing and planning

Part B starts with the service, not the room. It deals with the briefing and planning questions that come up when the way a health service is delivered has to become a brief for a physical facility, and it recognises a framework of authority requirements: the industry standards, codes and manuals that commonly apply to every project. Its Section 80 sets the parameters for planning and the service, policy and operational issues to weigh on all projects.

Part B calls the Health Planning Units a key feature of the guidelines. Below them, the Standard Components carry the room-level detail, in a room data sheet and a room layout sheet for each.

Part C and circulation rates

Part C is written to sit beside the HPUs and Standard Components. It also settles one conflict a planner will meet: where an HPU and Part C both give a recommended circulation rate, Part C’s rate takes precedence.

Parts D and E

The current Part D puts risk assessment and management at the centre of planning, design and implementation, as the way to remove or reduce safety and security hazards tied to infection prevention and control. Its changes to hand hygiene facilities, basin locations and dispenser placement are drawn on sheet A-102, designing for infection control.

Part E, on building services and environmental design, has been retired, because engineering services are delivered differently from one jurisdiction to another.

HPU 155, Ambulatory Care and Community Health

For a community clinic, one unit to read is HPU 155, Ambulatory Care and Community Health. It describes the operational, functional and design requirements for those services, whether they sit on a healthcare campus or in a stand-alone facility in the community. It began as two units, merged because both deal with same-day services for patients who are not admitted, and because both plan around a mix of flexible consult, interview, treatment and meeting rooms.

Some of its notes, in this sheet’s words:

  1. A way out for staff. Consult and interview rooms need arranging so staff can leave easily if they feel unsafe, through a second door or a furniture layout that keeps the clinician facing the patient with a clear path out that neither the furniture nor the patient blocks.
  2. No avoidable injury. The facility, its furniture, fittings and equipment must be designed and built so users are not exposed to avoidable risks of injury.
  3. Electrical. Every patient area must be wired at least as a body-protected electrical area under AS/NZS 3003:2018, and emergency lighting, telephones, duress alarms and electronic locks need connecting to the emergency power supply.
  4. Medical gases. Piped oxygen, medical air and suction are recommended for procedure rooms, treatment rooms and medical day stay or procedural areas where patients stay longer.
  5. Universal access. Its Standard Component for a universal access consult room allows room for a patient in a wheelchair, bariatric wheelchairs included, or one who needs a hoist to transfer.

Use in a fitout

The AusHFG pages quoted here do not say which projects must follow them. Ask the health department in the state or territory where the clinic will be, and read the guidelines beside the code: the building class is on sheet A-101, what building class is a clinic, and the access rules on sheet A-103, access for everyone.

HPU 155 itself points back to local rules where they are strict. Dosing clinics for opioid treatment carry strict design requirements because the medicines are Schedule 8 drugs of addiction, and local regulatory requirements apply when designing them. State rules decide clinical waste too, on sheet A-104, clinical waste in the fitout. All five sheets are listed in the index of sheets.