Referrals

Assessment and Management Information

Find assessment and management information on Medical Oncology conditions at: 

 

If any of the following are present or suspected, phone 000 to arrange immediate transfer to the Emergency Department or seek emergent advice if in a remote area.

  • Oncological Emergencies
    • Febrile neutropenia
    • Hypercalcaemia
    • Spinal cord compression
    • Superior vena cava obstruction
  • Acute pain where is there concern of patient safety and management
  • Acute dyspnoea with hypoxia
  • Renal or Liver Failure
  • Acute confusion/seizure
  • RPH provides a restricted Level 5 Medical Oncology service for the treatment and management of patients with breast, prostate, colorectal or lung cancer. Referrals for other oncological conditions should be directed to a Comprehensive Cancer Centre (Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Cancer Centre or Fiona Stanley Cancer Centre) or the patient’s local WA Country Health Service (WACHS).
  • RPH is an Adult service, referrals for child and adolescent health services should be directed to Perth Children’s Hospital, Referrals-to-PCH (external website).
  • For Country patients please consider a local service, view resources within AHCWA MAPPA (external website).

To arrange an urgent review or advice, please phone the RPH switchboard on 9224 2244 and ask to speak with the on-call registrar for Medical Oncology.

After verbal clinical handover and agreement with the registrar that the patient requires an appointment with RPH within 7 days please email the patient’s referral to:

RPH, Central Referral Receipting RPH.OutpatientReferrals@health.wa.gov.au

Ensure the referral is:

  • marked IMMEDIATE
  • the name of the registrar or consultant spoken with is written on the referral
  • all essential referral information, investigations, clinical photos are included

IMMEDIATE (Appointment within 7 days):

Widespread metastatic disease with concerns about impending renal/liver failure, impending fracture, brain metastases, acute pain.

RPBG Medical Oncology provides treatment and management of patients with breast, prostate, colorectal or lung cancer. Referrals are triaged based on clinical priority following these guidelines:

Category 1 (appointment within 30 days)

  • Metastatic breast, colorectal, lung or prostate cancer requiring Medical Oncology management
  • Neoadjuvant/Adjuvant chemotherapy for Stage 1-3 breast, colorectal or lung cancer (concurrent radiotherapy excluded)

Category 2 (appointment within 90 days)

  • Transfer of care from another hospital
  • Breast cancer patients with side effects from hormonal therapy

Category 3 (appointment within 365 days)

  • Patients in Survivorship Program (<5 years after completion of adjuvant chemotherapy)

Referrals will be returned without this information.

  • Sufficient clinical information to allow appropriate triage of the referral. This should include GP diagnosis, presenting symptoms, physical findings, past history including details of previous treatment, and investigations.
  • Where appropriate include details of facility where previous treatment has been provided, including date.
  • Details of current medications and any drug allergies (including reaction to anaesthetics).
  • Interpreter requirements.
  • Patient height and weight and where available, BMI.

If a specific test result is unable to be obtained due to access, financial, religious, cultural or consent reasons a Clinical Override may be requested. This reason must be clearly articulated in the referral.

Minimum Standard Referral is included in the standard referral template and is available on the Department of Health website (external link).

Please ensure patient email and mobile phone numbers are included to facilitate patient contact.

Patients can be flagged for Video or Telephone consultations at referral, triage, or follow-up.

Named referrals for Medical Oncology will be allocated a suitably qualified specialist to see the patient, noting these referrals are booked based on first on, first off principles from the outpatient waitlist.

Please note that where appropriate and where available, Medical Oncology referrals may be streamed to an associated public allied health and/or nursing service.  Access to some specific services may include initial assessment and management by associated public allied health and/or nursing, which may either facilitate or negate the need to see the public medical specialist.

RPH Medical Oncology is unable to accept referrals for patients who:

  • Will be residing outside of the Perth EMHS metropolitan catchment area
  • Have no tissue diagnosis to confirm primary site of malignant disease
  • Present with the following cancers- endocrine/neuroendocrine, genitourinary (other than prostate), head & neck, skin & melanoma, musculoskeletal, gynaecology, central nervous system & brain, thoracic requiring chemoradiation, mesothelioma and upper gastrointestinal
  • Are less than 16 years of age

The following services and procedures are excluded:

Service/procedure

Details

Radiotherapy/chemoradiation

Refer to SCGH or FSH CCCs

PET scan

Refer to patient’s closest provider

Clinical trials

Refer to SCGH or FSH CCCs

Ommaya reservoir insertion

Refer to SCGH Neurosurgery Department

Peritonectomy/intraperitoneal chemotherapy

Refer to SCGH or FSH CCCs

 

EMHS is responsible for providing public health services to the people who reside within its boundaries. 

The emhs-catchment-map.pdf (health.wa.gov.au) outlines the suburb catchment areas for East Metropolitan Health Service (EMHS). The country areas that flow to EMHS are Kimberley, Pilbara and Wheatbelt.

Referral to a hospital for assessment and/or treatment is based around multiple criteria.

These include:

  • Place of residence – most hospitals have catchments to help service people closer to home. For country patients, the residence of family with whom they will reside whilst attending appointments can be taken into consideration.
  • Age – RPH is an Adult Hospital, children are only treated by some hospitals.
  • Hospital location of specialty services – some conditions need designated specialist services that are not available at all hospitals.

Please use this information to guide referrals to the hospital servicing your patient's residence and inform your patients of these criteria when you are referring them for public hospital services via the Central Referral Service (CRS).

Last Updated: 20/11/2024