Useful Management Information

  • Acute persistent cough is from 2-4 weeks
  • Chronic cough is >4 weeks
  • Clinical urgency is the dominant consideration in the prioritisation of a referral for a child currently in out of home care (OOHC), or at risk of entering or leaving OOHC.

Clinician resources

Minimum Referral Criteria

Does your patient meet the minimum referral criteria?
Category 1 (appointment within 30 calendar days)
  • Systemic symptoms: fever, weight loss, failure to thrive
  • Feeding difficulties (including choking or vomiting)
  • Stridor and other respiratory noises
  • Abnormal clinical respiratory examination including clubbing
  • Abnormal CXR
  • History of haemoptysis
  • Severe paroxysms with vomiting or colour change
  • A child:
    • at risk of entering the child protection system (0 – 18 years of age)
    • currently in out of home care (OOHC) (0 – 18 years of age), or
    • Adolescents transitioning to adult healthcare following an out of home care experience (15 – 25 years of age)
    • where they have previously been on a waiting list for this problem and were removed without receiving a service
Category 2 (appointment within 90 calendar days)
  • Recurrent episodes of chronic, wet or productive cough
  • Recurrent pneumonia
  • Most other referrals for persistent or chronic cough
Category 3 (appointment within 365 calendar days)
  • No category 3 criteria

If your patient does not meet the minimum referral criteria

  • Assessment and management information may be found on a range of conditions at HealthPathways
  • If the patient does not meet the criteria for referral but the referring practitioner believes the patient requires specialist review, a clinical override may be requested:
    • Please explain why (e.g. warning signs or symptoms, clinical modifiers, uncertain about diagnosis, etc.)
  • Please note that your referral may not be accepted or may be redirected to another service

Essential Referral Information

  • History of the cough:
    • duration
    • paroxysm-related symptoms such as vomiting or colour change
  • Report presence or absence of other respiratory illness
    • asthma
    • chronic lung disease
    • cystic fibrosis
  • Chest X-Ray
  • Report presence or absence of concerning features
    • Persistent fevers
    • Night sweats
    • Weight loss (if so estimate how much)
    • Haemoptysis
    • Significant contacts with TB or pertussis
  • Confirmation of out of home care (OOHC) (where appropirate)

Additional Referral Information

Desirable information- will assist at consultation

  • Other past medical history
  • Immunisation history
  • Developmental history
  • Medication history
  • Significant psychosocial risk factors (especially parents mental health, family violence, housing and financial stress, Department of Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services involvement)
  • Height/weight/head circumference and growth charts with prior measurements if available.
  • Other physical examination findings inclusive of CNS, birth marks or dysmorphology
  • Any relevant laboratory results or medical imaging reports, urinalysis result
Last updated 2 December 2024

Send Referrals To

Smart Referrals

Preferred Method
About Smart Referrals

Secure Web Transfer

Send to: Gold Coast Health Service District

Internal Referrals

Paediatric Medicine (E-Blueslips)

Fax

(07) 5687 4497

Post

Paediatric Referral Centre
Gold Coast University Hospital
1 Hospital Boulevard
Southport QLD 4215

Enquiries

1300 744 284

Related HealthPathways

No directly related pathways found

Service Availability

Dr Susan Moloney
Medical Director Paediatric Medicine (General Paediatrics)

Facilities

Gold Coast University Hospital

If you would like to send a named referral, please address it to the specialist listed above, who will allocate a suitably qualified specialist to see the patient. Alternatively, you can view a full list of our specialists.

Child Safety

If you have a reason to suspect a child in Queensland is experiencing harm, or is at risk of experiencing harm, contact Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Services . Please consider if mandatory reporting applies.

Gold Coast Health - For Clinicians
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