How to refer

• We accept GP and specialist referrals for all specialist clinics.
• Referrals are triaged based on clinical need.
• To ensure your referral is reviewed and triaged promptly, it needs to meet minimum referral requirements. 

We have developed referral guidelines for many of our specialist clinics. Referrals for the specialty areas that have referral guidelines in place will only be accepted at Western Health if they comply with the new guidelines.

Referrals with insufficient information to facilitate triage will be returned with a request for additional information. This may delay access to the service.

To refer a patient please:

1. Ensure your referral complies with Western Health’s Access and Referral Guidelines 

Referrals to Specialist Clinics

2. Check your referral meets minimum referral requirements. This will allow for your referral to be reviewed and triaged promptly (referrals that do not meet minimum referral requirements will be rejected).

3. For MBS Clinics at Western Health, please address referral to the relevant head of unit (for clinic and head of unit details, visit Referrals to Specialist Clinics)

4. Fax your referral to relevant area. Currently, Western Health can only accept referrals via mail or fax (fax is preferred)

Please note, if your referral is urgent, please call switchboard (03 8345 6666) and ask for the registrar of the relevant unit.

To ensure all necessary information is included, Western Health has developed the referral templates below. Referrals generated from your own practice system are also accepted, provided they contain all details required for triage.

Please note for neurosurgery and endoscopy, below referral templates are mandatory.

The Maternity referral template has been designed with all required prompts to support timely and accurate triage of referrals

The steps outlined in the graphic above are explained below:

1. Quality assurance - clerical review (administrative)

A check by clerical staff that the referral contains the required clerical information.

2. Quality assurance - clinical review (nursing)

A check by nursing staff to see that the referral contains the required clinical information.

3. Clinical triage - categorised by health professionals

A health professional will review the information you provide to assess the urgency of the referral and direct it to the 
most suitable clinic. Please include as much relevant information as possible to ensure the patient is referred to the right 
clinic within an appropriate timeframe. Referrals that lack sufficient detail for triage will be returned with a request for 
additional information, which may delay access to the service.

4. Appointment outcome - scheduled, waitlist or rejected

Depending on the triage category (Urgent or Routine), the patient will either be allocated an appointment or placed on a waiting list.

If a referral does not meet minimum referral requirements or guidelines, the referral will be rejected.

5. Notification - patients and referrers notified of outcome

Patients will receive an SMS (or letter if SMS is not available) advising them of the outcome. The patient letter has 
all clinic details (which is different to the appointment notification letter GPs will receive).

Western Health uses HealthLinks for clinical communication.

Complete/valid referrals

Within 8 working days of receipt of the referral, the health service will inform the referring clinician in writing of one of the following:

• The referral has not been accepted (and the reason).
• The referral has been accepted and an appointment scheduled
• The referral has been accepted and the patient placed on a waiting list.

Incomplete referrals (missing required information to assess the referral)

• The referral must not be accepted.
• The referring clinician must be notified in writing of this decision within 8 working days of the referral being received.
• If a referral appears likely to be high priority (urgent) but is incomplete, the clinician will be contacted verbally to obtain the remaining information, so the referral can be assessed immediately.

Handover and discharge communication

After the patient is discharged from the specialist clinic, the health service must provide a written clinical handover to the referring clinician (and the patient’s nominated GP) within 5 working days.

Please note, patients will receive appointment letter with all relevant clinic information this is different to the appointment notification letters GPs receive)

Our specialist clinics are located across all sites including:

• Sunshine Hospital
• Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s at Sunshine Hospital
• Footscray Hospital
• Bacchus Marsh Hospital
• Melton Hospital
• Sunbury Day Hospital.

You will be told of your clinic location after you get an appointment date.

The GP Integration Unit provides a weekday GP Query Service that helps GPs and GP clinics navigate Western Health, supporting timely access to appropriate care and clear communication with hospital teams.

General Practice Integration Unit 
Phone: (03) 8345 1735
Fax: (03) 8345 1180
Email: [email protected] 

Please do not share GPIU contact details with patients. 

Interpreter services
Patient transport
Wilim Berrbang (Aboriginal Health Unit)
Disability liaison service