Does a vet clinic need a body-protected area?

AS/NZS 3003 is written for patient areas in human health care: hospitals, medical and dental practices and the like, and the equipment standards it leans on (AS/NZS 2500 and the medical electrical equipment standards) are about people. Nothing in the state regulators’ guidance applies it to animals, so a veterinary treatment room is wired to the Wiring Rules, AS/NZS 3000, like any other workplace.

That said, a vet surgery has the same mix of wet hands, metal tables and equipment applied to a body, and some vets choose to have treatment rooms wired with 10 mA RCDs and individually switched outlets anyway. If you do, it is a design choice, not a requirement: it does not need the green sign or the 12-month patient-area test. If a regulator, builder or insurer has asked you for body protection, ask them which requirement they are relying on.