Medical Practice Risk Assessment: A Practical South African Guide

A useful risk assessment is a management tool, not a completed template. It should help a medical practice decide what can cause harm, who may be affected, which controls already exist and what must happen next.

South Africa’s Occupational Health and Safety Act places workplace health and safety duties on employers. Risk evaluation is also reflected in official safety regulations and guidance. The assessment should be specific to the practice’s premises and activities.

Step 1: Define the area or activity

Assess manageable units such as reception, consultation rooms, procedure rooms, medicine storage, cleaning, waste handling, staff workstations, home visits or contractor work. A single broad line reading “clinical risks” is not enough.

Step 2: Identify the hazard

A hazard is something with the potential to cause harm. Common medical-practice examples include:

  • needles, blades and contaminated sharps;
  • blood or body-fluid exposure;
  • cleaning chemicals, medicines and compressed gases;
  • slips, trips, falls and poor access routes;
  • manual handling and prolonged computer work;
  • electrical faults, fire and equipment failure;
  • aggression, robbery or lone working;
  • waste storage and collection; and
  • maintenance or contractor activities.

Step 3: Identify who may be affected

Consider employees, locums, contractors, patients, companions, cleaners and visitors. Risk may vary according to the task, training, pregnancy, disability or other relevant vulnerability.

Step 4: Record existing controls

Examples include safer equipment, barriers, ventilation, secure storage, maintenance, written procedures, restricted access, training, supervision, vaccination programmes where appropriate, and personal protective equipment. Record what is actually in place—not what the policy says should exist.

Step 5: Rate and prioritise the risk

Use a consistent method that considers likelihood and consequence. The rating should guide action; it should not create false precision. Serious hazards may need prompt control even if they are uncommon.

Step 6: Allocate further action

Each action should have an owner, realistic deadline and expected evidence. “Staff to be careful” is not a control plan. A better action specifies what will change, who will do it and how completion will be confirmed.

Step 7: Review residual risk

After new controls are implemented, reconsider the remaining risk. Review the assessment after incidents, material changes, new equipment, new services, building alterations or evidence that a control is not working. Schedule periodic reviews even when nothing obvious has changed.

What makes a risk assessment inspection-ready?

It is dated, approved, version-controlled and linked to training, inspections, procedures and corrective actions. Staff can recognise the risks relevant to their work, and completed actions can be demonstrated.

The Complete Occupational Health and Safety Compliance Handbook by Dr Bianca Crook explains how risk assessment fits into a wider compliance-management system.

Official sources

General educational information only; not a substitute for a competent site-specific assessment or legal advice. Reviewed 2 September 2026.