What's On News October 2016 Mater Specialist Outpatient Clinics

News

Mater Specialist Outpatient Clinics

Wednesday 26 October 2016

Patients can be referred direct to Mater Hospital Brisbane for a range of specialist outpatient services. Our clinics offer models of care that aim to improve access for patients to timely review by our clinical teams. Mater Online is our resource to support GPs with accurate, current and transparent information.

We have developed online referral guidelines to support our GP partners with referrals. The guidelines include clinic specific information on:

• Scope of Practice: What services we do and don’t provide in our clinics. 
• Referral Criteria: Clarity on the information that needs to be provided in a referral for it to be accepted on to a wait list.
• Categorisation Information: Transparency on how referrals are assessed for clinical urgency and allocated a category. The category of a referral affects how quickly a patient will be allocated an appointment.
• Current Wait Times: Up to date information on how long patients wait for their first appointment at Mater Hospital Brisbane by specialty and each category of urgency. This can help manage patient expectation about how long an appointment might take.
• Contact Information: Improving communication pathways between GPs, specialists and other key service contacts in the interests of patient care.

Additionally, The General Practice Liaison Program (GPLO) works at Mater Health to improving the interface between the hospitals, general practice and Primary Health Networks.  The program is committed to continued improvement and addressing service gaps between primary and specialist care. We advocate the key role of general practice in patient centred care and work to design and deliver services that meet community need. The program is an accessible point of information for the GP community.

We always seek and welcome input from GPs. If you are interested in being involved on projects or have any ideas, issues, questions or concerns about the General Practice Liaison Program please contact Louise O’Reilly on 07 3163 7552 or by email louise.oreilly@mater.org.au.