AS 3745 and emergency planning for a clinic
Evacuation diagrams, wardens and the obligations that start the day you occupy, not the day you build.
The short answer
Most of what this site covers is about building a tenancy. This one is about occupying it, and it is the compliance obligation practice owners most often meet for the first time after the builder has left.
Key points
- AS 3745 covers planning for emergencies in facilities: people, procedures and diagrams.
- It is an occupier obligation, and it starts when you move in.
- Evacuation diagrams have prescribed content and placement rules.
- Clinics are harder than offices because patients can’t always self-evacuate.
- Your builder does not do this for you. Someone in the practice has to own it.
Most of what this site covers is about building a tenancy. This one is about occupying it, and it is the compliance obligation practice owners most often meet for the first time after the builder has left.
What AS 3745 is
AS 3745, Planning for emergencies in facilities, sets out how a facility prepares for emergencies: who is responsible, what the procedures are, how people are trained, and what has to be displayed.
It’s not a construction standard. Your fitout delivers exit signage, emergency lighting and the paths of egress required by the National Construction Code. AS 3745 governs the human system that uses them, and that is the occupier's job.
The four things it asks for
An emergency planning committee. The group responsible for developing and maintaining the arrangements. In a small practice that may be two people; the point is that it exists and that responsibility is assigned not assumed.
An emergency control organisation. The people who act during an emergency, with defined roles: a chief warden, deputies, floor or area wardens. Again, scaled to the facility, but named.
Emergency response procedures. Written procedures for the events that could reasonably occur, covering fire, medical emergency, threat and evacuation.
Training and exercises. Instruction for occupants, training for wardens, and evacuation exercises at intervals. Not a document that sits in a drawer.
Evacuation diagrams
The part everyone recognises, and the part most often done badly.
A diagram is not a floor plan with an arrow on it. AS 3745 prescribes what it must contain and where it goes: the location and orientation of the viewer, exits and paths of travel, the assembly area, the location of firefighting equipment, a legend, the validity date, and correct orientation relative to the person reading it.
Placement matters as much as content. A diagram that’s technically perfect and hung where nobody stands has done nothing.
They also have to be kept current. A fitout that moves a wall makes every existing diagram wrong, which is worth remembering during a refurbishment.
Why a clinic is harder than an office
An office evacuates itself. A clinic frequently cannot.
You may have patients who are mid-procedure, sedated, undressed, in a chair they cannot get out of quickly, elderly, mobility-impaired, or accompanied by children. A dental patient with a rubber dam in place and a surgery under way is not going to be walking down a fire stair in thirty seconds.
Which means the procedures have to address things an office template doesn’t: how a semi-recumbent patient is moved, who is responsible for each treatment room, how you account for patients as well as staff at the assembly area, and what happens to somebody in recovery.
This is also the same reasoning that sits behind Class 9a classification. If your occupants may be unable to evacuate without physical assistance, the building has heavier requirements and so does the plan.
Where it intersects with the fitout
Your builder delivers exits, exit signage, emergency lighting and, where required, detection and alarm. The certifier confirms those at the occupancy permit stage, and they usually become essential safety measures requiring ongoing maintenance and records.
What the builder does not deliver is the plan, the wardens, the training or the diagrams. Ask at handover who is producing the evacuation diagrams, because the answer is frequently nobody, and finding that out on your first day of trading is the wrong time.
AS 3745 is a purchased document and is revised. Take the requirements from the current edition.
Sources and further reading
AS 3745 is a purchased document and is revised. Take the requirements from the current edition, and get advice appropriate to your facility.
Source for AS/NZS 4815 and 4187 reprocessing, AS 1428.1 access and AS 1668.2 ventilation. The standards themselves are purchased, not free.
The National Construction Code: building classification, fire separation, egress, sanitary provisions and access.
Room-by-room design guidance and standard components used across Australian health projects, including consulting, treatment and sterilising rooms.
Questions
What is AS 3745?
The Australian Standard for planning for emergencies in facilities. It covers the emergency planning committee, the emergency control organisation and its warden roles, written response procedures, training and exercises, and evacuation diagrams. It is an occupier obligation rather than a construction standard.
Does a small medical practice need an emergency plan?
The obligations scale with the facility, but the structure applies: someone responsible for the arrangements, named people with roles during an emergency, written procedures, training, and compliant evacuation diagrams. A small practice does a smaller version, not none of it.
What has to be on an evacuation diagram?
AS 3745 prescribes the content and placement: the viewer's location and orientation, exits and paths of travel, the assembly area, firefighting equipment locations, a legend and a validity date, oriented correctly for the person reading it. Placement matters as much as content.
Why is evacuation harder in a clinic than an office?
Because patients can’t always self-evacuate. Someone mid-procedure, sedated, undressed or mobility-impaired needs assistance, so the procedures have to cover who is responsible for each treatment room, how patients are moved, and how they’re accounted for at the assembly area.
Does the builder provide the evacuation diagrams?
Usually not, and it’s worth asking at handover instead of assuming. The builder delivers exits, exit signage and emergency lighting; the plan, the wardens, the training and the diagrams are the occupier's responsibility.
Send us the floor plan
A site assessment tells you what the tenancy can take and what it will cost to get there, ideally before you have signed for it.