Can an existing room be upgraded to a body-protected area?

Yes, and it is a common job: a consult room becoming a treatment room, a new chair going into a room that was storage, a practice taking over a space that was never medical. The electrician replaces or re-feeds the room’s outlets so they are on 10 mA RCDs in the room, adds the dedicated circuits the equipment needs, provides the earthing the classification requires, identifies the protected outlets, fits the sign, and makes sure there is a cleaners’ outlet on a separate circuit within 15 metres.

How disruptive it is depends on where the switchboard is and what is in the walls. In an occupied practice it is usually staged around sessions. The room is then tested to AS/NZS 3003 and signed off the way your state requires before patients are seen in it.

The useful first step is a look at the room and the equipment list, so you know whether it is a day’s work or a bigger job before you commit to the room.