IHEA Member Alert: Have Your Say on the Draft NSQHS Standards Third Edition

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care is currently consulting on the draft third edition of the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards, with submissions closing on 25 September 2026.

IHEA is reviewing the draft from a healthcare engineering, facilities management and infrastructure perspective and is seeking input from members to help inform its response.

Of particular relevance is draft Requirement 3.01 – Safe environments, which carries forward and expands many of the obligations currently associated with Action 1.29 of the second edition of the NSQHS Standards.

The draft includes requirements relating to the design, testing and maintenance of:

• buildings and healthcare environments

• plant and equipment

• utilities and essential services

• water, electricity and medical gases

• transport and other infrastructure

• infrastructure that must remain fit for purpose and safe for use.

IHEA is also reviewing related requirements, including Requirement 3.09, which addresses infection prevention and control in relation to the maintenance, repair and upgrading of buildings and infrastructure.

Other areas of interest include business continuity, utility outages, sustainability, climate resilience and medical devices.

Why this matters

Current Action 1.29 – Safe environment is consistently among the actions most frequently identified during accreditation as either requiring improvement or receiving recommendations for improvement.

For healthcare engineering and facilities teams, these findings can involve complex issues such as ageing infrastructure, asset condition, maintenance regimes, testing requirements, compliance with technical standards, critical utility resilience and major capital works.

The third edition therefore presents an important opportunity to help ensure future accreditation requirements are:

• technically clear and consistently interpreted

• proportionate to infrastructure risk

• appropriate for both new and existing healthcare facilities

• aligned with recognised engineering and asset-management practices

• clear about what constitutes “fit for purpose” and “safe for use”

• realistic about the time and capital required to address major infrastructure deficiencies

• supported by appropriate technical expertise during accreditation.

  
  

IHEA is seeking member feedback

We are particularly interested in hearing from members with experience in:

• accreditation findings under current Action 1.29

• differing interpretations of infrastructure requirements by assessors

• legacy infrastructure that remains safe but does not meet contemporary new-build guidance

• maintenance, inspection and testing requirements

• critical utilities, emergency power, water, HVAC and medical gases

• infection-control related infrastructure upgrades

• capital remediation arising from accreditation findings

• duplication between facilities-management and medical-device requirements.

Members are encouraged to provide practical examples, recurring issues and suggested improvements that could help IHEA develop a constructive and evidence-based submission.

Please provide your feedback to IHEA by Friday 18 September 2026 via email ihea.standards@ihea.org.au

The Australian Commission’s formal consultation closes on 25 September 2026.

IHEA supports strong national requirements for safe, reliable and resilient healthcare infrastructure. Our objective is to help ensure the third edition provides clear, technically sound and consistently assessable requirements that support patient safety while recognising the practical realities of operating and renewing complex healthcare facilities.