Regulation amendments for Medical Gas Work

What's this about?

The NSW Government is introducing a licensing scheme for medical gas systems in medical, health and veterinary facilities.

Changes have been made to two laws through the Gas Legislation Amendment (Medical Gas Systems) Act 2020 (the Amendment Act). These laws are:

• Gas and Electricity (Consumer Safety) Act 2017
• Home Building Act 1989.

The reforms impact a range of medical facilities and industry operators. Medical facilities include private and public hospitals, day hospitals and IVF clinics, aged-care and veterinary facilities, dentists and medical centres.

The reforms intend to have high standards of safety and work.

Amendment regulations are needed to support the Act and make the scheme functional. The proposal includes:

• prescribing substances used for medical purposes as medical gases
• referencing relevant Australian and International Standards to ensure that medical gas work is compliant with these standards
• conduct of safety and compliance tests on medical gas work and reporting requirements
• obligations to report defective work
• reporting of a serious medical gas accident
• machinery provisions to allow for the regulation of medical gas installations
• prescribing specialist categories of work, for the purposes of licensing under the Home Building Act, and
• details around information sharing.

What has happened so far?

In June 2020, the NSW Government committed to introducing a robust regulatory scheme, licensing framework for medical gas systems in medical facilities, developed in consultation with industry and other key stakeholders.

Targeted consultation was conducted with key stakeholders in June, with the release of a draft Bill and consultation paper.

On 6 August 2020, the NSW Parliament passed the Gas Legislation Amendment (Medical Gas Systems) Bill 2020.

The Regulations provides the administrative detail to support the operation of the Act.

The Amendment Act will commence on 1 November 2020, with transitional provisions in place to allow for industry to be appropriately qualified and licensed.

Next steps

You are invited to read the consultation paper and draft amendment regulations and complete the online form to tell us your views.

The consultation paper sets out the objectives of and reasons for the proposed amendment regulations and seeks feedback from stakeholders and the community.

At the end of the consultation period, we will consider the feedback and amend the proposed Medical Gas Work Regulations as needed.

We will publish all submissions on our website

If you do not want your submission to be published online, please indicate this clearly in your submission. Even if you say that you do not want us to publish it, we may be required to by law.