Noise from hospitals

Hospitals are typically located in or close to residential areas and may operate 24 hours, 7 days a week.

Residents nearby hospitals may experience noise from the day-to-day operation of the hospital including sirens from ambulances, air conditioning systems and generators.

Talk to your local hospital

If you experience noise from the day-to-day operation of a hospital you are encouraged to contact the hospital directly.

Direct communication with the hospital is often all that is required to reach a mutually satisfactory solution.

For public hospitals, you can also contact the Local Health District for assistance.

Who to contact next?

If you continue to experience offensive noise after you have contacted the hospital and Local Health District, and they have had a reasonable time to investigate your referral, then you can lodge a complaint, with:

• the relevant Local council, or
• the NSW EPA via Environment Line by email at [email protected] or 131 555.

When you make your complaint, please be ready to provide the following information:

• name and address of the hospital
• a description of the noise including why it is a problem for you
• a copy of your communications with the hospital/Local Health District and
• a copy of any response received from the hospital/local health district.

Regulation of noise from hospitals

In NSW, noise is regulated through the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 and the Protection of the Environment Operations (Noise Control) Regulation 2017. Offensive noise means noise that by reason of its level, nature, character or quality, or the time at which it is made, or any other circumstances:

• is harmful to (or likely to be harmful to) a person who is outside the place where the noise is coming from, or
• interferes unreasonably with (or is likely to interfere unreasonably with) the comfort or rest of a person who is outside the place where the noise is coming from.

When a complaint is lodged with the EPA, the EPA will assess the information and determine whether further investigation is warranted.

The assessment will take into account that hospitals are inherently noisy at times as part of their typical and normal operations.

The EPA will generally not proceed with an investigation when the matters raised relate to noise that is typical of normal hospital operations and recognises that some activities will have noise impacts that will be disruptive to neighbours from time to time.