Opening a clinic in Sydney

How to open a medical clinic in Sydney

In Sydney, every clinician registers with Ahpra and their National Board, and NSW Health licenses the premises only where patients are admitted, treated and discharged or receive treatments the regulations prescribe, as in a day procedure centre. From the first appointment, wai runs booking, signed notes, consent, messaging and payments on one record, with every action kept as evidence for an assessor.

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Updated 16 October 2026. Every rule is checked against the official source and cited below.

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Regulator

NSW Health, for private health facilities

Practitioners

Ahpra and the National Boards

Records

NSW Health Records and Information Privacy Act

Accreditation

NSQHS Standards or RACGP Standards

Six steps to an open clinic in Sydney

Who licenses a medical clinic in Sydney, and in what order?Step 01
What do the premises of a Sydney clinic need?Step 02
What indemnity insurance does a Sydney clinician need?Step 03
What checks does a Sydney clinic run before it hires clinicians?Step 04
What has to be in place before the first Sydney patient?Step 05
What matters in a Sydney clinic's first 90 days?Step 06

How to open a clinic in Sydney, step by step

From the licence to the first 90 days, in the order a founder meets each step.

01Licensing and the regulator

Who licenses a medical clinic in Sydney, and in what order?

Practitioners, not consulting rooms, are registered nationally, by Ahpra with 15 National Boards across 16 professions. NSW Health licenses private health facilities under the Private Health Facilities Act 2007.¹²

Register every clinician with Ahpra and their National Board, and check each one on Ahpra's public register.¹
Test the service against the Act. A private health facility is premises where a person is admitted, treated and then discharged, or receives services or treatments the regulations prescribe.³
License before you operate if the definition fits. A person must not conduct a private health facility unless it is licensed and they are the licensee, with a maximum penalty of 5,000 penalty units.³
Pick the class. NSW licenses overnight and day only facilities across 19 classes, and one facility can hold several.²
Plan accreditation. Private hospitals and day procedure services must be accredited to the NSQHS Standards, and a general practice seeking accreditation is assessed under the NGPA Scheme against the RACGP Standards.⁴⁵

02Premises and fit-out

What do the premises of a Sydney clinic need?

A consulting practice is not licensed as premises unless it meets the Act's definition, while a facility that admits patients or performs prescribed treatments must hold a licence of the right class.³²

List every procedure you plan to offer, because the regulations can prescribe treatments that may only be performed at a licensed facility, or one of a particular class.³
Apply to NSW Health for the classes your services need before the facility opens.²
Keep health records in New South Wales, or meet an HPP 14 ground before transferring them outside the state, including to another state.⁶

03Indemnity and insurance

What indemnity insurance does a Sydney clinician need?

Every practitioner who practises must have professional indemnity insurance arrangements that comply with their National Board's registration standard.⁷

Confirm each clinician's cover before their first patient, and keep the evidence on their staff file.⁷
Expect the declaration at registration and every renewal that the practitioner will not practise without appropriate cover.⁷
Read the standard of each profession you employ, because each National Board sets its own.⁷

The NSQHS and RACGP hub

04Hiring and credentialing

What checks does a Sydney clinic run before it hires clinicians?

Look each clinician up on Ahpra's public register, which shows whether they are qualified, registered and their current registration status in every state and territory.¹

Search the register for every registered practitioner you hire, and record the date you checked.¹
Record each clinician's indemnity arrangements alongside the register check.⁷
Brief clinicians on Ahpra's guidance on AI, which asks them to obtain the patient's informed consent and note it.⁸

Clinic AI staff training

05Patient-facing setup

What has to be in place before the first Sydney patient?

Consent to recording, and records held where NSW law expects them. Section 7 of the NSW Surveillance Devices Act requires the consent of all principal parties to record a private conversation, subject to narrow exceptions.⁹

Ask for and note informed consent before an AI scribe records a consultation, as Ahpra asks.⁸⁹
Hold health records under the NSW Health Records and Information Privacy Act, with transfers out of New South Wales only on an HPP 14 ground.⁶
Update your privacy policy before 10 December 2026 to describe personal information used by programs that make, or substantially help make, significant decisions.¹⁰
Plan for languages. 42.0% of Greater Sydney households use a language other than English at home.¹¹

06The first 90 days

What matters in a Sydney clinic's first 90 days?

A new day procedure service may be eligible for interim accreditation, with an assessment within 10 working days of starting to provide services, and the interim guide generally applies for its first 12 months.⁴¹²

Prepare for NSQHS assessments at 24 hours' notice, so the evidence has to exist on an ordinary day.¹³
Assess a general practice against the RACGP Standards, 5th edition, the edition the NGPA Scheme uses today, and build in the 6th edition released on 26 August 2026.⁵
Diary each clinician's annual Ahpra renewal, with its indemnity declaration.⁷

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How wai runs a Sydney clinic from day one

From the first appointment, a Sydney clinic runs its diary, notes, payments and patient conversations on one record, with the evidence an assessor asks for kept as the work happens.

01
Appointments

Patients request appointments from your own website at any hour, with a reminder before every visit and cancelled slots offered to the waitlist.
Online booking from your own website, every clinician's diary read from their calendar, reminders, rebooking after a missed visit and waitlist offers when a slot opens.

For patients
Online booking at any hour, with a reminder before the visit.
For the business
Fewer missed appointments, and cancelled slots offered to the waitlist.
On the record
Every booking, reminder and change, with a time and a name.
02
Billing

Card payments go to your clinic's own account, with the fee and cancellation policy shown before the patient commits and an export for your accountant.
Card payments into your own Stripe account, the cancellation policy shown at booking, invoices, statements and reconciliation, with an export for your accountant.

For patients
A clear price and policy before they commit, and an invoice in their app.
For the business
Payments reconciled against visits, with an export for your accountant.
On the record
What was charged, when, against which visit, and the policy the patient saw.
03
Scribe

The note, letters and referrals are drafted from the consultation, cited to published guidelines, for the clinician to read, edit and sign.
The note, letters and referrals written from the consultation, cited to published clinical guidelines, with the transcript beside the note, for the clinician to read, edit and sign.

For patients
The clinician's attention stays on them during the consultation.
For the business
Less time spent writing notes after clinic.
On the record
A contemporaneous note, signed, with the time, the signature and the source it cites.
04
Follow-up

WhatsApp, email and calls land in one thread per patient, with replies drafted in Mandarin, Arabic, Vietnamese or whichever language the patient wrote in, for your team to approve.
WhatsApp, email and calls in one thread per patient, replies drafted in the patient's own language for your team to approve, a response clock on every new enquiry, and recalls a clinician approves.

For patients
A reply in the language they wrote in, approved by your team.
For the business
More enquiries answered within the hour, when they are most likely to book.
On the record
The whole conversation on one record, with response times.
05
Evidence and audit trail

Consent is recorded at booking, referrals are written from the visit, and every read of a record is logged against a named account.
Recording consent taken at booking, referrals written from the visit, patient flags for controlled drugs and safeguarding notes, and every read of a record logged against a named account.

For patients
Flags and checks in the record at the point of care.
For the business
Incident reviews that start from the audit trail, with times and names.
On the record
Who saw what, who changed what, and when, to the minute.
06
Staff access

Every person has a named account and a role enforced in the database, so every action in the record sits under a name.
Named accounts for every person, and role-based access enforced in the database, so every action sits under a name.

For patients
Their record seen only by staff whose role allows it.
For the business
Access and actions tied to named people, in the same system as the record.
On the record
Who holds which role, and every action taken under it.

wai hosts each clinic's records in its own country, under that country's rules. We set this up with you before go-live. Prices for clinics, groups and hospitals are on the wai pricing page.

What a well-run clinic gains

Patients answered within the hour, clinicians home on time and diaries that stay full, in published research.

7x
An enquiry answered within the hour is nearly seven times as likely to become a real conversation.¹⁴
30%
Clinicians using an ambient scribe did 30% less work after hours.¹⁵
23%
Patients sent a notification before their visit were 23% more likely to attend.¹⁶

Questions

Do I need a licence to open a GP clinic in Sydney?

NSW licenses premises as private health facilities where patients are admitted, treated and discharged, or receive treatments the regulations prescribe.³ Every practitioner must be registered with Ahpra and their National Board whatever the premises.¹

Is professional indemnity insurance mandatory in Australia?

Yes, for registered practitioners. They must hold arrangements that comply with their Board's registration standard, and declare it at registration and every renewal.⁷

Does a day procedure centre need accreditation?

Yes. Private hospitals and day procedure services are required by health regulators to be accredited to the NSQHS Standards.⁴ A new service may be eligible for interim accreditation.¹²

Can a Sydney clinic store records in another state?

Only on an HPP 14 ground, such as substantially similar protection or the patient's consent, because the NSW HRIP Act restricts transfers outside New South Wales.⁶

Does Ahpra or NSW Health approve clinic software?

No. Ahpra regulates practitioners and NSW Health licenses facilities, neither approves software.¹ wai keeps the records your team uses to show an assessor how care is delivered.

Sydney regulators and guides

All regulators

Sydney in depth

All insights

Opening a specialty clinic in Sydney

Every specialty

Opening a clinic elsewhere

Every city

Request a demo for your Sydney clinic.

We show wai running a Sydney clinic on your own diary, notes and inbox, in a 15 minute video call with our team. wai hosts each clinic's records in its own country, under that country's rules. We set this up with you before go-live.