THIS MONTH IN ENGINEERING | Why Healthcare Buildings Are a Different World
- Rebeka Zubac
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Hospitals carry an appearance of calm, but anyone who has worked in them knows the truth. Behind the walls is a constant effort to keep air clean, pressure steady, power uninterrupted and water controlled. None of these systems can slip, even briefly.
In healthcare, building services sit close to the clinical frontline. If a system falters, the impact is immediate and it is felt in patient care. That reality shapes the way hospitals are designed, upgraded and maintained.
A typical clinical room can move between several pressure settings depending on its use. Imaging facilities need shielding and vibration stability that most buildings never require. Medical gases run through ceilings and risers like a network of arteries, and every valve and alarm has a direct role in safety. Pharmacy and CSSD areas depend on narrow bands of temperature and humidity, and filtration that protects everything downstream. Even the drainage strategy has consequences for infection control.
The work is far removed from residential projects, and the approach has to reflect that difference.
Goldfish & Bay has spent years working across hospitals and specialist clinical spaces. Our work includes MRI suites, CT and X-ray upgrades, cardiac catheterisation labs, nuclear medicine, pharmacy expansions, CSSD refurbishments and controlled environments that rely on HEPA filtration. We have delivered syphonic drainage, medical gas networks, BMCS upgrades, nurse call improvements, power quality investigations and a broad range of ward and recovery refurbishments.
Much of this work has been completed in live clinical settings, where shutdowns are tightly limited and every decision influences operational continuity. Alongside our long history with St Vincent's Health Australia, we have delivered significant projects for multiple hospitals and health networks across New South Wales and beyond, which has given us a close understanding of the way engineering supports clinical outcomes over the long term.
The same question sits behind every hospital project.
Will this system keep working when someone’s wellbeing depends on it?
Good healthcare design is not only about capacity. It is about stability and the way independent systems behave when the building is under strain. Airflow affects infection pathways. Power affects theatre schedules. Drainage affects sterilisation and pharmacy conditions. A lapse in one area becomes a clinical problem in another.
Experience helps shape the judgement needed to design for environments where failure is not an option.
For those working in healthcare design or operations, it raises a useful question.
Which building service do you see as the most critical inside a hospital?
