Medical centre cleaning standards in Australia: what RACGP accreditation expects from your cleaner

A general practice in Australia is accredited against the RACGP Standards for general practices, now in their 5th edition, and those Standards expect the practice to show that its environment is cleaned in a way that manages infection risk. The Standards do not hand the practice a cleaning method. They expect the practice to have one, to be able to explain it, and to have the records that show it is followed. For the cleaning contractor that means four things: a written scope by zone, a clean-to-dirty order with colour-coded equipment, products chosen for the surface and the risk, and a record of every visit the practice manager can hand to an assessor.

Updated 3 November 2026. Written by Jordan Sinclair, JC Commercial, Adelaide. Standards and documents are named so you can read them yourself; this is practical guidance, not legal advice.

The documents that set the standard

Three documents matter. The RACGP Standards for general practices (5th edition) are the accreditation standard, with the criteria on the practice's physical environment and on infection prevention and control the ones a cleaner touches; the RACGP's 5th edition hub links the Standards to the supporting resources. The RACGP's Infection prevention and control guidelines for general practices and other office-based and community-based practices give the detail on cleaning, disinfection and reprocessing. Behind both sit the Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare, published by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care with the NHMRC, which the Commission's infection prevention and control program maintains. Dental practices and allied health have their own accreditation schemes, but they draw on the same national guidelines, so the method below applies to them too.

What an assessor expects to see

Expectation	What it looks like in the cleaning contract
A documented cleaning process	A written, clause-numbered scope by zone: consulting rooms, treatment room, waiting room, reception, toilets, staff areas, sterilisation area where present, with tasks and frequency for each
Risk-based zoning	Clinical rooms cleaned with their own colour-coded cloths and mop heads; toilets last with a separate colour; waiting room and offices as a general zone
Correct products	Detergent for routine surfaces, a TGA-listed hospital-grade disinfectant for clinical touch points and after any spill, with the contact time written into the method and the safety data sheet on file
Trained people	Cleaners inducted to the practice, trained in standard precautions, sharps awareness and spill response, with police checks and immunisation records where the practice requires them
Evidence	A record of every visit: time in and out, each zone ticked off, photos of clinical rooms and toilets, and anything found reported to the practice manager
Spill and sharps response	Who cleans a blood or body fluid spill, with what, and what the cleaner does if they find a sharp (they do not pick it up)

Zones and the clean-to-dirty order

The method that satisfies assessors and, more to the point, works, is to divide the practice into zones and clean from the cleanest to the dirtiest with equipment that does not cross between them. A common colour convention in Australian healthcare is yellow for clinical rooms, red for toilets and washrooms, blue for general areas and green for kitchens, though the colour itself matters less than the rule that one colour stays in one zone. The order on a typical practice is: reception and waiting room, offices and staff room, consulting rooms, treatment room, toilets. Mop heads and cloths are laundered or replaced after the clinical zone and again after the toilets.

Touch points and clinical surfaces

In a consulting room the cleaner's work is the touch points and the floor, not the clinical equipment. Door handles, light switches, chair arms, desk edge, keyboard and mouse surround, the examination couch frame and the paper roll holder, the basin and taps, the bin lid. The couch surface is wiped by clinical staff between patients and disinfected by the cleaner at the end of the day. Equipment such as blood pressure cuffs, otoscopes and scales are the practice's responsibility and are left alone unless the scope says otherwise. Writing this boundary down prevents both the cleaner wiping something they should not and the practice assuming something was done that was not.

Products and contact time

Routine cleaning uses a neutral detergent. Disinfection of clinical touch points and any surface after a spill uses a hospital-grade disinfectant listed with the TGA, left wet for the contact time on the label, which is commonly several minutes, not the ten seconds a quick wipe allows. Two-in-one detergent-disinfectant wipes are acceptable where their label says so. The practice should hold the safety data sheet for every product the contractor brings on site, and the contractor should be able to say which product is used where without looking it up.

Records for accreditation

The record is what turns a cleaning method into evidence. Per visit, per zone, with times and photos, kept for the accreditation cycle and retrievable by date. A monthly tick sheet does not show that the treatment room was cleaned on a given Tuesday; a per-visit record does. The record should also carry a line for anything found, such as a sharps container left full, a blocked basin or a damaged couch cover, because reporting those is part of the cleaner's contribution to the practice's infection control.

What to ask a contractor

Ask for the written scope by zone, the colour system, the product list with safety data sheets and contact times, the induction and training records, the spill and sharps procedure, and a sample visit record. Then ask about the terms: a response term where an issue is acknowledged within 2 hours and resolved within 24, and no lock-in contract so the practice can change contractors without a gap if standards slip. A contractor who cleans medical centres regularly will have all of this ready. One who does not will have to write it, and the practice will be the test site.

JC Commercial cleans GP, dental, physio and specialist practices across Adelaide to a zoned, colour-coded method with a record of every visit kept for accreditation. The medical cleaning page sets out the method, the earlier piece on why medical centre cleaning matters covers the risks, and a 15-minute walk-through turns the practice into a written scope with the price. For how medical cleaning is priced against other site types, see the 2026 cost guide.

FAQs

Does RACGP accreditation require a specific cleaning product?

No. It requires the practice to have a documented process that manages infection risk. In practice that means detergent for routine cleaning and a TGA-listed hospital-grade disinfectant for clinical touch points and spills, used for its full contact time.

Are colour-coded cloths mandatory?

They are not named in the Standards, but a colour system is the accepted way to show that equipment does not move between clinical areas, general areas and toilets, and assessors expect to see one.

Who cleans a blood spill in a medical centre?

Usually clinical staff at the time, using the practice's spill kit. The cleaner disinfects the area again at the end of the day if the scope says so. Either way, the procedure should be written down and both parties should know it.

How often should consulting rooms be cleaned?

Daily after the last patient, with touch points disinfected every visit and floors cleaned every visit. Treatment rooms and toilets are done last in the sequence.

What records should a practice keep from its cleaner?

A record of every visit showing times, zones ticked off and photos, kept for the accreditation cycle, plus the contractor's product list, safety data sheets, insurance and training records.