Work health and safety law puts a positive duty on a practice to provide a safe workplace, and a regular walkthrough is the simplest way to meet it and to prove you met it. This guide walks a monthly inspection you can run in about an hour. For the wider employment duties this sits inside, see the healthcare employment compliance pillar; this is the procedure for the walk itself.
Before you begin
Decide who runs the walkthrough (usually the practice manager or a nominated WHS lead) and book it as a recurring monthly task so it actually happens. Have your workplace inspection checklist and your hazard and risk register ready, because the walk feeds the register and the register is the evidence trail. A walkthrough with no record is a chat, not a control.
Step 1: Build your checklist for physical and psychosocial hazards
Work from a checklist so the walk is consistent month to month and nothing is inspected by mood. Cover the physical hazards (trip and slip risks, electrical leads and equipment, sharps and clinical waste, fire exits and extinguishers, manual handling, infection control, security) and, just as importantly, the psychosocial hazards (workload, aggression from patients, fatigue, isolation), which carry the same legal duty under your psychosocial hazards policy.
Tailor the checklist to your practice's real layout and risks rather than using a generic list. The point is to look at what is actually in your rooms, so the checklist should name your equipment, your exits, and your known pressure points.
Step 2: Do the walk and record what you see
Physically walk the practice with the checklist and record the state of each item, not just the exceptions. Note what is compliant as well as what is not, because the record that you looked and found it satisfactory is itself part of the evidence. Photograph hazards where it helps, and talk to staff as you go: they will surface psychosocial and near-miss issues a visual sweep misses.
Capture enough detail that someone reading the record later understands the hazard without being there. "Frayed lead, treatment room 2, taped temporarily" is evidence; "electrical issue" is not.
Step 3: Rate and prioritise the hazards
For each hazard you find, assess the risk by how likely it is to cause harm and how serious that harm would be, and give it a rating. This is what turns a list of observations into an ordered set of actions, so a blocked fire exit or an aggression risk rises above a scuffed floor. Record the rating in your hazard and risk register.
Rating forces a defensible decision about what to fix first. It also shows, if anyone ever asks, that you did not just notice hazards but assessed and prioritised them, which is the heart of the due-diligence duty covered in the employment law for practice managers post.
Step 4: Assign and close the actions
A hazard you logged but never fixed is worse than one you missed, because the record shows you knew. For each hazard above an acceptable level, assign a specific person, a control (eliminate, substitute, isolate, or as a last resort a procedure or PPE), and a due date. Then follow up until it is closed, and record the date and what was done.
Closing the loop is the part that actually makes the workplace safer and the part regulators care about most. The register should show hazards moving to closed, not a growing list of open items no one owns.
Step 5: File it as WHS evidence and book the next walk
Save the completed checklist and the updated register together as the month's record. Over time this builds a continuous trail showing a practice that inspects, finds, rates, and fixes hazards on a routine, which is exactly the due diligence a regulator or insurer wants to see after an incident. Brief staff or your WHS committee on anything significant.
Then confirm next month's walk is booked, so the routine never lapses. The value of a walkthrough is that it is regular: a one-off inspection proves nothing about whether the workplace is safe today.
What good looks like
- The checklist covers both physical and psychosocial hazards, tailored to your practice.
- The walk is recorded in full, with enough detail to act on later.
- Every hazard is rated by likelihood and severity, not just listed.
- Each significant hazard has an owner, a control, a due date, and a close-out record.
- The records build a continuous monthly trail, with the next walk always booked.
Common mistakes: inspecting only physical hazards and ignoring psychosocial ones, recording exceptions but not the full sweep, logging hazards without assigning or closing actions, and running a walkthrough once instead of on a standing monthly cycle.
Frequently asked questions
How often should a practice run a WHS walkthrough?
A monthly inspection suits most practices, with the cycle booked as a recurring task so it does not lapse. Some hazards (fire equipment, specific clinical risks) may need their own schedule, but a regular monthly walk is the baseline routine that demonstrates ongoing due diligence.
Do I have to assess psychosocial hazards too?
Yes. WHS law treats psychosocial hazards (excessive workload, aggression, fatigue, isolation) with the same duty as physical ones, so a walkthrough that only checks trip hazards and fire exits is incomplete. Include workload and patient-aggression risks and act on them the same way.
What records do I need to keep from a walkthrough?
The completed inspection checklist and the updated hazard and risk register, showing what you inspected, what you found, how each hazard was rated, who owned the action, and when it was closed. Together these form the evidence trail that you identified and managed risks rather than simply having a policy.
Who is responsible for running it?
A nominated person (commonly the practice manager or a WHS lead) runs the walk, but the legal duty to provide a safe workplace sits with the practice and, under WHS law, with its officers. Assigning a runner does not transfer the duty; it operationalises it.
What do I do with a hazard I cannot fix straight away?
Log it in the register, apply an interim control to reduce the risk in the meantime (for example, tape and flag a damaged lead and remove it from use), assign an owner and a due date for the permanent fix, and follow up until it is closed. The record should show the interim control and the path to resolution.
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