HealthPathways

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Useful Management Information

  • Medical management
    • If ear discharge is present, swab for M/C/S
    • Topical ear medication
    • Antibiotics (eardrops or tablets)
    • Analgesia
    • Keep ear dry
    • Review after three months by GP
    • Arrange diagnostic audiological assessment

Minimum Referral Criteria

Does your patient meet the minimum referral criteria?
Category 1 (appointment within 30 calendar days)
  • No category 1 criteria
Category 2 (appointment within 90 calendar days)
  • Persistent discharge despite treatment and disabling pain and/or hearing loss significantly limiting quality of life, education, work
  • Recurrent episodes of discharging ear
  • Deteriorating hearing
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

  • Diagnostic audiology assessment (Highly desirable where available and not cause significant delay)

If a specific test result is unable to be obtained due to access, financial, religious, cultural or consent reasons a Clinical Override may be requested. This reason must be clearly articulated in the body of the referral.

Additional Referral Information

  • Ear swab M/C/S results
  • Results of health assessment for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander People
Last updated 7 February 2024

Send Referrals To

Smart Referrals

Preferred Method
About Smart Referrals

Secure Web Transfer

Gold Coast Health Service District

Internal Referrals

Fax

(07) 5687 4497

Post

Booking and Referral Centre
Gold Coast University Hospital
1 Hospital Boulevard
Southport QLD 4215

Enquiries

1300 559 083

Related HealthPathways

No directly related pathways found

Service Availability

Dr Jim Hallam

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.

Gold Coast Health - For Clinicians
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