Referral Requirements

Referrring Doctors are asked to provide referrals, preferably generated on Medical Software and with appropriate clinically relevant information to ensure the provision of comprehensive care.  

Alternatively you may choose to use the  Victorian State-wide Referral Form (VSRF) which when incorporated into your software, can autopopulate information which will assist in the management of your referral.

Please note there are extended versions of the VSRF called VSRF plus Urology and VSRF plus Orthopaedic Hip or Knee, please utilise these when referring to specific specialist clinics.

Please include the following information on the patient referral:

Patient Demographics

• Patients full name including next of kin and, where appropriate (e.g. for a minor) the name of a parent, guardian or carer. 
• Patients contact details (address, home and alternative telephone number).  Please include next of kin/carer contact number
• Patients date of birth
• Patients gender
• Medicare number and hospital UR number (if known)
• Information about any special needs, including need for an interpreter;

Referrer details

• Referring practitioners name address, contact number, as well as those of the G.P if different to the referring practitioners
• Referrers provider number
• Referring practitioner's signature;

Referral and clinical information

• Date of referral and requested time for patient to be seen
• Name of specialty clinic referral is intended for
• GP diagnosis or provisional diagnosis, if relevant
• Reason for requesting specialist assessment (for example, assessment only, second opinion, assessment and management, shared management with GP, diagnostic procedure)
• Current and past medical history including previous treatment
• Relevant investigations, current medications and any drug allergies;

Please note: Referrals that are incomplete and unable to be triaged: that is

Unclear or unintelligible;
Missing necessary demographic, clinical or other information, will be returned to the referrer with a request for additional information prior to being triaged and placed on the specialist clinics waitlist.

Please note: Under the Privacy Legislation and the Health Records Act, there is a requirement that patients provide consent before secondary health professionals can access their private test results. For the purposes of accurate triage, this consent is required at the point of referral.