Your referral

For referrals, use the following steps:

1. See your GP or specialist for a referral.
2. Have your doctor send us your referral.

Once you have been referred, we will either:

• Accept your referral. Once accepted, we will review your referral to work out how urgently your care might be. If urgent, we will contact you to arrange an appointment.
• If routine, you will be placed on our wait list. We will contact you once an appointment becomes available. See below for wait list times.
• Decline your referral. If declined, we will notify you and your referring doctor.

If your referral is missing information, we will contact your referring doctor for additional information. 

We may either suggest your doctor refer you to a health service closer to home, where you will receive the same type of care or refer you to another health service if we do not provide the service you require. 

You will receive your appointment details as either a text message/SMS or a letter.

Example Text Message / SMS 

• The sample SMS text above reads: 

  Dear PATIENT you have an appointment at Adult Specialist Clinics Western Health. Your letter is here (with relevant URL following). The password is your postcode.

• You will need to enter your "postcode" as your password to access your appointment details

Example Letter

The main text of the letter in the image above reads as below. Please note that details of names and times will be specific to your case:

Dear (insert name)

You have an appointment booked in the Adult Specialist Clinics. Please attend at the time below for your appointment.

Patient: (insert name)

Clinic: (insert name of clinic)

Appointment: (insert time)

Arrival time: (insert time)

Where to come: (insert location)

Please bring this letter and any of the following if you have them, to your appointment:

• List of medications
• Medicare card
• Pensions/Concession card
• X Ray/Scan results
• Blood test results

Please contact us if:

• You no longer need or unable to attend this appointment.
• Your GP details have changed
• Your address or phone number has changed
• Make sure you have completed all tests required before your appointment.

You may be discharged from this clinic if you do not attend this appointment.

Yours sincerely,

Adult Specialist Clinics

Western Health

Waiting time for appointments to Western Health Specialist Clinics is variable depending on the urgency of the illness/injury.

• Urgent appointments are generally seen within 1 month
• Semi-urgent in 2 to 3 months
• Routine appointments from 3+ months.

Please ask your GP to contact Western Health if you or they no longer need an appointment. This helps us ensure that appointment times are able to be given to others waiting.