There is a high demand for gastrointestinal endoscopy services. Therefore, it is essential to identify those patients that need procedures more urgently.
All requests for procedures are triaged so those that are more urgent or those with the highest likelihood of significant pathology are prioritized.
The service supports the recently published 2017/8 Victorian Colonoscopy/Upper Endoscopy Categorisation Guidelines that the Victorian Department of Heath and Human Services has implemented as of the July 2018.
These standardised guidelines assist all Victorian public health services to ensure that GI endoscopy patients are prioritised in a similar manner, irrespective of the specialist or health service to which they are referred.
The Direct Access to Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Procedures (DAGE) pathways and symptom guidelines help the referer to identify patients who have a higher likelihood of significant pathology and to help reduce the number of unnecessary endoscopy referrals.
