Outpatients

Outpatient appointments are made after referral from General Practitioners (GP), other Doctors or following discharge from hospital for further treatment.

For more information about outpatient services available at Royal Perth Hospital (RPH), visit the service directory.

Visit the Excluded Procedures Outpatient Referrals page for information about WA Health Excluded Procedures.

Image of catchment mapFor your information, the catchment map (PDF 400KB) 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 – 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.

    For Country patients please consider a local service, view resources on the AHCWA MAPPA website (external link)

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

 

For patients in the East Metropolitan Health Service catchment (PDF 400KB) and the Kimberley, Pilbara and Wheatbelt who require immediate referral to Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) outpatients, please contact the registrar or consultant of the specialty team required. They can be contacted by calling the RPH switchboard on 9224 2244.

An immediate referral is for a patient who requires an appointment within the week.

Contacting a registrar or consultant ensures that the specialist team is immediately aware of the referral, allowing them to make arrangements as soon as possible. These arrangements include:

  • interim treatment recommendations
  • further investigations required prior to RPH review.

Please note who you spoke to and any instructions that you are given or appointments made on your referral.

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.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

RPH operate several Immediate access clinics. Please visit these sites and contact clinicians via the mobile number listed:

The WA Health Central Referral Service (external link) commenced on 24 February 2014. As of this date, all non-urgent / routine GP referrals to outpatient clinics at Royal Perth Hospital should be sent to the Central Referral Service.

Contact Central Referral Service

Secure Messaging: Send electronic CRS form via HealthLink to ‘crefserv’
Fax: 1300 365 056

Postal address:
Address: GPO Box 2566, Perth, WA 6831
Referral form templates

All non-urgent GP referrals to doctor-led outpatient clinics at Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) should be sent to the Central Referral Service (external site) and provide current (within the past 4 weeks) clinical handover.

Referrals are accepted on the letterhead of the GP, generated from your practice software or using an online referral form. The following patient information is required:

  • Date of birth.
  • Address
  • Contact phone numbers
  • Medicare number (including expiry date)
  • Patients maiden name
  • Language requirements (interpreter)
  • Current medication and allergy information
  • Weight (particularly if over 120 kilograms)
  • Copies of relevant investigations and reports
  • GP contact details.

Please check the Referral Access Criteria (RAC) for the speciality you are requesting at Central Referral Service guide for referrers (health.wa.gov.au). Referrals must meet the RAC to be accepted.

Referrals which do not contain sufficient information to allow accurate triaging of the priority of the referral will be returned to the referrer.

Patients with cognitive or memory impairments

When a patient has cognitive or memory impairments, agreements are often made to have appointment details mailed to their carer or relative to arrange transport and ensure they attend. Please indicate if this applies in the ‘special needs’ section of the referral form.

Priority

Immediate referrals are those which are discussed with a speciality, accepted to be seen within seven days and sent direct to site.

All other referrals are clinically triaged as:

  • Urgent: Priority 1 (0 – 30 days)
  • Semi urgent: Priority 2 (31 – 90 days)
  • Routine: Priority 3 (91 – 365 days)

Please note there are a number of specialities with waiting times outside of the triage categories. If you are concerned about a deteriorating patient, please consider contacting the speciality clinician or sending an updated referral through CRS.

Send referrals via

Contact: Central Referral Service
Secure messaging: Send electronic CRS form via HealthLink to ‘crefserv’
Fax: 1300 365 056
Address: GPO Box 2566, Perth, WA 6831
Referral form templates

Useful links:

Please avoid addressing referrals to specific RPH and Bentley Hospital consultants by name wherever possible.

Referring to the speciality without naming a consultant allows the referral to be allocated to any suitable qualified specialist within the speciality so that your patient receives the first available appointment for their clinical triage urgency (Urgent, Semi-Urgent, Routine).

Referrals to named consultants follow these same booking principles however as they are limited to only one consultant’s clinic, patients often end up waiting longer to be seen as some RPBG consultants only provide a fortnightly or monthly clinic.

However, if you have discussed a case with a particular consultant or registrar, please include the name of the doctor you spoke with on the referral.

The below services accept referrals sent direct to site, not through CRS.

Allied health and nurse led services at BHS are available for people living within the RPH and BHS general catchment map (PDF 400KB) (City and Inner South) areas – send referral to: BHS.OutpatientReferrals@health.wa.gov.au

Contracted Medical Practitioners

Contracted Medical Practitioners (CMPs) are specialists who practise privately and also have access to public surgical lists within the East Metropolitan Health Service.

These specialists require a named referral to their private rooms for an initial outpatient consultation.

Referral to one of these CMPs may result in shorter waiting times for patients and referrals should be sent directly to the specialist's rooms.

Visit the East Metropolitan Health Service Contracted Medical Practitioners webpage for more information.

For Country patients please consider a local service, view resources on the AHCWA MAPPA website (external link).

Letters and forms for GPs

Useful links

Following feedback that patients enjoy video and phone Telehealth appointments and the associated benefits, Royal Perth Bentley Group (RPBG) encourages the use of Telehealth to all outpatients where clinically appropriate.

Some of the benefits include:

  • saving time from not having to wait in clinics
  • reduced travel commitments – particularly important for regional and remote patients
  • convenience of an appointment from a location of your choice
  • avoiding the need to attend clinic appointments in person
  • physical distancing, which reduces infection risk for immunocompromised people, as well as for patients and healthcare workers during the COVID 19 pandemic.

While both video and telephone Telehealth appointments are available, patients are encouraged to opt for video appointments where possible. Visit the Video Call page to learn more.

Referring patients

When referring patients:

  • please discuss with your patients their preference for a video or phone appointment.
  • If they wish for appointments to be provided by video or phone, please indicate this on the referral.
  • Please include the patient’s email and mobile phone on the referral as this will assist in booking video and phone appointments.

GPs are welcome to use the “My Outpatient Appointment: Is a phone or video appointment suitable for me?” checklist and share it with their patients.

If you or your patient would like you to also be present at their video or phone appointment, and you are able to do so (pending confirmation of time), please also include this in your referral. The RPBG Telehealth team will endeavour to book appointments to suit you and your patient to attend at the same time. The patient can physically attend your practice for the appointment (which is helpful if a clinical examination may be required), OR your patient and you can attend virtually from different locations.

For more information about RPBG Telehealth Outpatient Services, please contact 9224 2417 or RPH.Telehealth@health.wa.gov.au.

Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) and Bentley Hospital commenced secure messaging to deliver most outpatient clinic letters to GPs in June 2021.

Key points:

  • If you currently receive secure electronic discharge summaries from Royal Perth Hospital, we have your correct details. No action is needed.
  • If your contact details or list of doctors working at your practice require checking or alteration, please telephone 9224 3673, fax: 9224 2348 or email on RPH.GPN.Coordinator@health.wa.gov.au
  • If we do not have secure messaging details and we have your fax number, we will fax the letter instead, because this will still reach you sooner than snail mail.
  • Where a letter appears to have been successfully transmitted by secure messaging or fax, a hard copy of that outpatient letter will NOT be mailed.
  • Where we do not have your secure messaging code or fax number or the letter is not able to be transmitted, the letter will be sent by post.
  • Letters from clinics that do not have this facility will continue to be mailed for now (unless manually faxed if urgent).
  • If you receive an outpatient letter for a patient who does not attend your practice, please contact the RPH Medical Typing Unit by telephone on 64775299, fax on 6477 5271 or by email on rph.clinicletters@health.wa.gov.au(include patient name, DoB, medical record number, speciality and date of letter).
  • Most RPH and Bentley outpatient letters as well as outpatient and inpatient pathology and imaging results are also now uploaded to the patient’s My Health Record.

Please check your patient’s My Health Record for information needed before requesting from medical records, pathology or imaging.
For previous outpatient referral letters or results that are not available on the My Health Record, please contact the Health Records Management Department via email at rph.infocentre@health.wa.gov.au, over the phone on 9224 2071 or via fax at 9224 1125.
A faxed request on the GP practice letterhead is preferred. The fax must include:

    • full patient name
    • date of birth
    • medical record number (if known)
    • information requirements
    • patient signature (not required if the requesting practice is listed on RPH systems as the patient's current GP)
      • please attach a scanned signed authority on practice letterhead if emailing 
    • if emailing, a comprehensive email signature which includes the practice address, phone number and website (if applicable) to validate the request
    • email address the information should be sent to, if not the requestor’s email – this must be a practice email. Please note documents will only be accessible and downloaded by the email address that the documents are emailed to. This cannot be forwarded to another staff member in the practice to download on your behalf.
       

Contact us

  • If your contact details or list of doctors working at your practice require checking or alteration:
    Phone: 9224 3673
    Fax: 9224 2348
    Email: RPH.GPN.Coordinator@health.wa.gov.au
  • If you receive an outpatient letter for a patient who does not attend your practice:
    Phone: 6477 5299
    Fax: 6477 5271
    Email: rph.clinicletters@health.wa.gov.au
  • For previous outpatient letters or results that are not available on the My Health Record, please contact the Health Records Management Department (as outlined above):
    Phone: 9224 2071
    Fax: 9224 1125.
    Email: rph.infocentre@health.wa.gov.au
Last Updated: 25/03/2024