Useful Management Information

  • Refer to local HealthPathways or local guidelines
  • High ESR with headache or any visual disturbance should be referred urgently to Emergency as suspected temporal arteritis.
  • High ESR associated with a monoclonal paraproteinaemia should be urgently referred to Haematology.
  • ESR is a non-specific inflammatory marker. Asymptomatic patients who have isolated raised ESR and normal investigations should not be referred to Haematology.
  • Patients with raised ESR and positive autoimmune screen should be referred to Rheumatology.

Moderately raised ESR can be associated with:

  • Autoimmune disease
  • Chronic inflammation
  • Infections
  • Malignancy
  • Pregnancy
  • Menstruation
  • Normal aging

Minimum Referral Criteria

Does your patient meet the minimum referral criteria?
Category 1 (appointment within 30 calendar day)

Raised ESR with features stated below:

  • splenomegaly
  • symptomatic lymphadenopathy
  • raised LDH
  • bulky disease (>5 cm diameter of LN mass)
  • presence of fever, night sweats, weight loss or new onset pruritus
  • concurrent recent onset cytopenia (e.g. anaemia, thrombocytopenia)
  • extra nodal masses
  • clinical history of rapid growth
Category 2 (appointment within 90 calendar days)
  • No category 2 criteria
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

  • FBC
  • Serial ESR
  • E/LFTs
  • Serum light chains
  • Serum free light chains
  • Serum protein electrophoresis and B2 microglobulin
  • Immunoglobulins

Additional Referral Information

  • CXR, Ultrasound and CT scans (if done)
Last updated 18 June 2025

Send Referrals To

Smart Referrals

Preferred Method
About Smart Referrals

Secure Web Transfer

Send to: Gold Coast Health Service District

Internal Referrals

Haematology (E-Blueslips)

Fax

(07) 5687 4497

Post

Cancer Referrals Centre
Gold Coast University Hospital
1 Hospital Boulevard
Southport QLD 4215

Enquiries

(07) 5687 2708

Related HealthPathways

No directly related pathways found

Service Availability

Dr Rachel Wooldridge
Medical Director Haematology

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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