Medical gas qualifications that do not exist
2026-05-11 · Medpipe technical team
In brief. There are no state-issued “medical gas qualifications”; SEP qualifications confirm energy-sector competences, not competences for medical gas pipelines. Admission of a contractor to the installation is decided by the Authorised Person (AP) — a role from Annex G to the standard PN-EN ISO 7396-1:2016-07. Competences for work on a medical device follow from the manufacturer's authorisation and from the system of roles which the hospital is obliged to staff.
A signed work order is not a pass to the medical gas installation. Who may touch the pipeline is decided by a designated role on the hospital's side, not by an invoice.
SEP qualifications do not confer the right to work on medical gases
SEP licences confirm energy-related qualifications — electrical, thermal or gas — and not competence in work on a medical gas pipeline system. The phrase qualifications: medical gases, SEP is one of the more frequent questions from technicians and one of the more frequent misunderstandings in the industry. An installation supplying a ventilator in the ICU is not assessed against the same certificates as a boiler room.
Apparent routine: replacing a valve, rewelding a section of copper, connecting a terminal unit. The real stake: gas delivered straight into the patient's lungs, with no buffer between the error and its consequence.
Where do the competencies for work on the installation really come from?
Competence arises from three things at once: documented training, practice on the given type of system, and written appointment to the role by the healthcare provider. A diploma alone is not enough, because it says nothing about this particular installation in this particular hospital.
That is why in mature organisations training assigned to the role replace a generic „on-the-job induction”. A different scope applies to the designer, another to the welder, another to the staff operating the terminal units. The guide „Gazy medyczne w praktyce. Zeszyt 1” (GMWP) developed by INMED S.A. shows that qualifications of the installation contractor is assessed simultaneously at the level of the company and of the specific individual. One without the other is empty.
Which roles must the hospital fill?
A hospital cannot outsource the whole of its responsibility — some roles must be filled on its own side. The GMWP guide describes how they interrelate; in the briefest terms these are:
- the management responsible for the pipeline system as a whole,
- the Authorised Person (AP) — a control point for all work on the installation,
- a technically competent person on the contractor's side,
- a representative of the clinical side, which bears the consequences of a supply interruption,
- staff operating the supply sources, compressors and terminal units on a daily basis.
Why does an order alone not entitle a company to access the installation?
Because the order governs the commercial relationship, whereas access to the installation is governed by permit to work issued by the hospital. These are two different documents and two different worlds. A contractor may hold a contract, certificates and twenty years of practice and still have no right to close an area valve until the Authorised Person AP grants permission for a specific scope within a specific time window.
The mechanism itself — who issues, who receives and who closes the permit — is set out step by step in the guide. Here it is enough to remember the principle: no assigned role, no access; no permit, no work.
Frequently asked questions
Does the contractor's quality system certificate settle the matter?
No. A certificate says something about the organisation, not about the person who will stand at the pipeline with a torch.
Who issues the permit to work on a medical gas installation?
The hospital side, through the designated Authorised Person (AP) — never the contractor alone.
Must all roles be filled in a small hospital as well?
Yes, although one person may combine several roles. None of them, however, may be left vacant.
The full division of roles, the scope of training and the course of the permit to work are described in the guide — order the GMWP guide.
Prepared by: the technical team of Małgorzata Dopierała, Damian Czyczyro and Przemysław Kostera — Medpipe Sp. z o.o., design, audits and inspections of medical gas installations. This article is based on the guide „Gazy medyczne w praktyce. Zeszyt 1” (Medical Gases in Practice, GMWP), INMED S.A.