Interdisciplinary Persistent Pain CentreOutpatientStatewide CPC
Urgent Advice
- For urgent advice, please contact the service during business hours on 5668 6825. Outside of these hours, please call through switchboard 1300 744 284 or our GP Only Enquiry Line 5687 0003.
Are you referring to the right service?
- For Paediatric Referrals please refer to Queensland Children’s Hospital Persistent Pain Service.
- Referrals for this service are only accepted from General Practitioners (see exception under Notes (Internal Referrals).
- This service has an extended catchment area inclusive of the following Hospital and Health Service Districts: Gold Coast, Darling Downs, West Moreton, South-West and Northern Rivers to Coffs Harbour in NSW.
- Patients accessing this service must have completed all active consultations with any other specialist service (eg. Orthopaedics, Gynaecology, Neurosurgery, Rheumatology, Neurology)
- Patients must have finalised any Insurance and/or Workers compensation claims relating to chronic pain conditions
Conditions
Out of Scope Services
The following conditions are out of scope for this service:
- Patients who can be well managed in primary care (using appropriate guidelines where necessary)
- Previous Queensland Health PPMS patients who have not followed management recommendations unless there are extenuating circumstances or new issues
- Previous Queensland Health PPMS patients who have completed the pain management pathway / programs and for whom no new management approaches are available
- Patients undergoing treatment from other pain specialist services for the same pain problem without mutual awareness / agreement of cross referral by both teams
- Patients for whom it may be more clinically appropriate for treatment to be initiated by another specialist service
- Patients with untreated and unstable mental health conditions where these conditions require acute management in the first instance in order to facilitate safe and sustainable pain management
- Patients that have harmful non-therapeutic and/or recreational substance misuse without concurrent treatment by a drug and alcohol specialist
- Indefinite referrals are not accepted
Out of Catchment
Gold Coast Health is responsible for providing public health services to the people who reside within its boundaries. Special consideration is made for patients requiring tertiary services or for services that are not provided by their local hospital and health service district. If your patient lives outside the Gold Coast Health catchment area and you wish to refer them to one of our services, please indicate relevant medical or social information that will assist with the processing of your referral.
Notes
Please note that where appropriate and where available, the referral may be streamed to an associated public allied health and/or nursing service. Access to some specific services may include initial assessment and management by associated allied health and/or nursing, which may either facilitate or negate the need to see the public medical specialist.
- A change in patient circumstance (such as condition deteriorating or becoming pregnant) may affect the urgency categorisation and should be communicated as soon as possible.
- Please indicate in the referral if the patient is unable to access mandatory tests or investigations as they incur a cost or are unavailable locally.
- If your patient consents to telehealth, please indicate in the body of the referral.
Internal Referrals
Referrals from Gold Coast Health (or Queensland Health) medical officer will only be accepted if triaged to be a category 1 (urgent) referral or, by exception, if there is evidence in ieMR that the referring team has obtained agreement from an IPPC medical officer/triage officer regarding acceptance of a non-urgent referral for a particular patient.
The Clinical Prioritisation Criteria outlines considerations for differentiation between urgent (category 1) and non-urgent referrals. Should a Gold Coast Health (or Queensland Health) medical officer consider that their patient would benefit from IPPC input and is not likely to be triaged as an urgent referral, please liaise with the patient’s General Practitioner regarding the recommendation.
This will support General Practitioner assessment, treatment, and consideration of a new referral, within the context of their overall care plan, for non-urgent care as required. Additionally, this will ensure appropriate clinical monitoring whilst awaiting access to non-urgent outpatient care. For further information, see the organisation’s Outpatient Internal Referral Procedure.
Patient Must Bring
- Medicare card
- Any concession cards (e.g. Pension, Health Care, DVA, PBS Safety Net, ADF, etc.)
- Current medication list
- Reading glasses, hearing and mobility aids
Send Referrals To
Smart Referrals
Preferred Method
About Smart Referrals
Secure Web Transfer
Send to: Gold Coast Health Service District
Internal Referrals
Persistent Pain (E-Blueslips)
Fax
Post
Suite 3 Campus Alpha,
2 Investigator Drive
Robina QLD 4226
Enquiries
Service Availability
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.