​About this fact sheet

Skin penetration business owners can find rules for designing their business in the Public Health Regulation 2022 and Local Government (General) Regulation 2021.

It is important to design skin penetration businesses in a way that allows for good infection control practices.

Business construction

Before starting a business, it is important to contact your local council to discuss design, planning and construction standards. The general standards for a skin penetration business include:

• design and construction methods that allow surfaces to be easily and correctly cleaned
• good lighting and ventilation
• floor coverings, shelves, fittings, and furniture that are suitable for beauty treatment
• a waste disposal bin
• storage facilities that can store equipment and utensils in a clean condition
• a separate sink with a supply of clean, warm water for cleaning equipment
• a hand basin that is only used for hand washing and is always supplied with:
• clean, warm potable water
• liquid soap and an alcohol-based hand cleaner
• single-use towels or a working automatic hand dryer.
• It is recommended that a hand basin is provided as near as possible to treatment rooms/areas to allow staff to easily wash their hands.
• Reprocessing area bench workspaces, sinks, equipment, and instruments should be arranged to allow practitioners to carry out cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising procedures without contaminating cleaned and sterilised instruments and equipment.

All skin penetration businesses must be registered with their local council before starting business, and where a business changes ownership the new owner needs to notify the local council within 7 days.

Sterilisation facilities

• Re-usable skin penetration equipment and instruments should be reprocessed (cleaned and sterilised) in a separate area that is only used for this process.
• Sterilisation must be carried out using a steam-under-pressure bench top autoclave following the sterilisation process in Australian Standard AS/NZS 4815:2006 Office-based health care facilities – Reprocessing of reusable medical and surgical instruments and equipment, and maintenance of the associated environment.
• The autoclave should be registered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). Refer to the TGA website for further information.
• The reprocessing area should be planned and constructed to minimise the risk of contamination.
• Equipment and instruments that are being reprocessed need to flow in one direction through the processing area to reduce the risk of contamination between unclean or unsterilised equipment and instruments, and clean or sterile equipment and instruments. Figure 1
  below shows a recommended layout for reprocessing areas.

• The equipment processing area must be provided with a hand basin and a sink and each must be used only for this purpose.
• All hand basins and sinks must always be provided with a supply of warm water. The size of the water heater needs to be considered at the design stage of the business.
• Ensure there is sufficient bench space to allow for clear separation between clean and unclean and unsterilised equipment. Extra bench space is needed for other materials and equipment and for drying equipment after it has been cleaned.

Other requirements

• Businesses providing colonic lavage treatments must provide other facilities including toilets either in the treatment room or nearby (see fact sheet Colonic lavage businesses).
• Businesses using sharps must use a sharps container that meets
• AS/NZS 4261:1994 Reusable containers for the collection of sharp items used in human and animal medical applications, or
• AS 4031:1992 Non-reusable containers for the collection of sharp medical items used in health care areas.

Further advice

• Contact your local council.
• Contact your local Public Health Unit by calling 1300 066 055.