Outpatient Clinics - Information for Health Professionals

Please review the individual outpatient Department webpages listed above for services and referral criteria. There may be discipline-specific referral requirements in addition to the mandatory information below. 

Referral forms

If your patient is eligible for treatment, you may use this generic referral form. Each department may have a separate referral form on their webpage where there are additional referral requirements. 

Fax the referral form to (02) 9382 0422.

All mandatory information must be complete. The referral forms ensure that you do not miss any mandatory information to enable a timely and appropriate referral.

Mandatory information for public and private referrals

You may receive a fax requesting a review of your referral if any of the following information is missing:

• Patient details, including full name, date of birth, phone number and Medicare number
• Consultant name (for private referrals)
• Clinic name 
• Next of Kin details
• Reason for referral 
• Diagnosis 
• Clinical urgency
• Results from investigations.

Private referrals (bulk-billed through Medicare)

All patients have the right to choose to be treated as a public or private patient for outpatient attendances. If your patient chooses to be treated privately and bulk-billed through Medicare, your referral must meet the following criteria:

• You must address the referral to one Consultant from our Specialist team, not the hospital, clinic, outpatient department or JMO
• You must sign and date the referral, and include your provider number and practice address
• You must state the period of referral in months, or refer “indefinitely”
• You must provide this referral on or prior to the appointment date.

We cannot process your referral if it does not meet the above criteria prior to your patient's initial appointment.

Your patient can choose to amend your referral on the day of their initial appointment. If you provide a private referral that is addressed to a Consultant, your patient may choose to: 

• Seek treatment from another provider within our team and change the Consultant's name on the referral themselves, or
• Decide to be treated as a public patient for their initial appointment, for which the private referral will be valid.

Please note that it is also inappropriate for our administration team to recommend a Consultant for your patient. Each Department webpage lists the names and specialties of our Consultants to help you decide on the most appropriate practitioner. 

Please review the Department pages for individual processes the may be different to the general information below. 

Once your referral has been received with all mandatory information complete, your patient will be contacted by our Administration teams via phone or post. The methods of communication depends on their clinical urgency and discipline-specific processes. 

Urgent requests

If your patient needs to be seen urgently, please call the Prince of Wales Hospital switchboard on (02) 9382 2222 and ask to speak with the relevant Registrar or Fellow. 

Cancelling and rescheduling appointments 

If your patient wishes to cancel or reschedule their appointment, they may phone the relevant Department in advance. If your patient does not attend multiple consecutive appointments without notice, they may be removed from the Department's appointment list. 

Appointment reminders 

Your patient will receive a reminder prior to their appointment if a mobile phone number is provided. We use an application called HealthNow which provides patients with: 

• Instant appointment booking notifications 
• Appointment calendar reminders 
• Directions to the appointment with Google Maps
• Internal Hospital maps. 

Your patient will receive a message asking to download and register with HealthNow. You may wish to advise your patient that they can expect this message. This is not spam and is safe to use. 

You must indicate on your referral whether your patient needs an interpreter and the language required. 

If you need to request an interpreter after your referral has been sent, you may advise the relevant Department via phone. Otherwise, your patient may phone the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS) on 131 450 to set up a phone conversation between the Department and Interpreter.