Rheumatology Department - Information for Health Professionals

Our clinic is located in the Adult Outpatients Department, Campus Centre Building, Prince of Wales Hospital (building 16 on our campus map). Phone: 02 9382 0400.

Information about how to get to our Randwick campus

Clinic Name	Clinic Day	Clinic Time
General rheumatology new patient clinic - Consultant/ Registrar (Dr Bertouch, A/Prof Damodaran, Dr Katrib, A/Prof Sammel, Dr Hugh Caterson)	Tuesday	2.00-5.00 pm
Vasculitis specialised clinic - A/Prof Anthony Sammel	Tuesday	9.00 am -12.00 noon
Faver and autoinflammatory disease specialised clinic - Dr Hugh Caterson	Tuesday	9.00 am - 12.00 noon
Rheumatology Post Discharge Clinic - Registrar with Consultant oversight	Thursdays	9.00am - 12.00 noon
General rheumatology follow up clinic - Consultant/ Registrar (Dr Bertouch, A/Prof Damodaran, Dr Katrib, and A/Prof Sammel)	Friday	9.00 am -12.00 noon

Name	Subspecialty
Dr James Bertouch	Senior Staff Specialist, POWH. Conjoint Lecturer, UNSW
A/Prof. Arvin Damodaran	Clinical Academic Rheumatologist, POWH. Director, Clinical Teaching Unit, POW Clinical School. Associate Professor, UNSW
Dr Amel Katrib	Senior Staff Specialist Rheumatology, POWH. Conjoint Senior Lecturer, UNSW
A/Prof Anthony Sammel	Staff Specialist Rheumatology & Vasculitis, POWH & SSEH. Conjoint Senior Lecturer, UNSW
Dr Hugh Caterson	Staff Specialist Rheumatology and Autoinflammatory disease, POWH.

Inclusion criteria 

• Your patient has one of the following diagnoses or suspected diagnoses: Inflammatory (RA/SLE/systemic sclerosis/seronegative/sarcoid), infective, crystal or degenerative/mechanical Arthritides; Antiphospholipid syndrome; Vasculitides; Inflammatory myopathies; autoinflammatory diseases.

• Your patient resides within the POWH catchment area, except for the specialty vasculitis and autoinflammatory disease clinics (patients outside the catchment area may be seen at the discretion of Dr Sammel and Dr Caterson).

• We receive the following test results with your referral: FBC, UEC, LFT, ESR, CRP blood tests at minimum

• Additional blood tests where relevant to referral reason, including urate, CK, TFT, BSL, CMP, Vit D, ANA/ ENA/ DNA/ RF/ CCP/ ANCA

• Radiology reports relevant to referral. 

If your patient requires urgent review, please contact the Rheumatology registrar within the business hours of 9.00am-4.00pm. Otherwise, your referral must provide detailed clinical information. This will assist us in appropriately triaging your patient due to long waitlists and limited appointment capacity

Exclusion criteria* 

• Fibromyalgia
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• ANA </= 320 if main reason for referral
• Out of area referrals 

*Due to our limited resources and capacity (there may be exceptions in our vasculitis clinic). 

Prince of Wales Hospital Outpatient Department is using electronic referrals. eReferrals are electronic SmartForms that can be sent directly to the hospital facility from your practice system or the MyHealthLink Portal. An eReferral is an electronic document that can be sent securely, replacing other methods such as faxing or posting paper referrals. The above solutions enable referrals to be sent, received, and managed electronically. Referrers and patients will also receive notification of referral outcomes.

If your patient is eligible for treatment, please read this information on how to submit your referral.

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.

Please note that it is inappropriate for our administration team to recommend a Consultant for your patient. We have listed the names and specialties of our Consultants to help you decide on the most appropriate practitioner. 

Urgent referrals 

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 Rheumatology Registrar between the business hours of 9.00am-4.00pm. 

Who will contact your patient to schedule an appointment?

Our Administration team will send your patient a letter by post with their appointment details. If their need is urgent, they may be contacted by phone. 

Who can you contact to follow up on a referral? 

You may contact the Outpatients Department on (02) 9382 0400 to follow up on a referral.

What is the process if a patient misses or cancels their appointment?

If your patient needs to change or cancel their appointment they should phone (02) 9382 0400.

We are a Medicare service. You must provide a referral that is addressed to one of our Specialist team if your patient wishes to be bulk-billed.