Useful Management Information

  • Children > 1 year of age who have had a single uncomplicated UTI, not requiring hospitalisation do not require specialist review
  • Blood pressure levels for boys and girls by age and height percentile
  • Micturating cystourethrograms are rarely required and should not be done with referrals to general paediatrics
  • 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

  • If you have a reason to suspect a child in Queensland is experiencing harm, or is at risk of experiencing harm, you need to contact Child Safety Services
  • Statement of intent – the prioritisation of health services for children and young people in the child protection system

Minimum Referral Criteria

Does your patient meet the minimum referral criteria?
Category 1 (appointment within 30 calendar days)
  • The following conditions could be referred to general paediatrics or paediatric surgery depending on the service and underlying condition:
    • Infants ≤ 6 months presenting with 1st UTI
    • Child with known renal tract abnormalities
    • Significant neonatal renal pelvic dilatation (>15mm or >10mm if bilateral)
  • 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
Category 2 (appointment within 90 calendar days)
  • Recurrent UTI
  • Known renal tract abnormality transferring from another specialist

Infants and children with history of acute pyelonephritis/upper urinary tract infection after acute hospital care who do not have significant structural anomalies.

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

  • Evaluate adequacy of urinary stream
  • Confirmation of out of home care (OOHC) (where appropirate)
  • Results of MSU MCS (clean catch)
  • Results of renal tract USS

Additional Referral Information

Highly desirable information – may change triage category

  • Frequency of urinary tract infections and age of first onset
  • A reliable urine specimen is vital to confirm the diagnosis – urine bags must not be used (high false positive rate)

Desirable information - will assist at consultation

  • History of constipation, fluid intake, poor hygiene, recent threadworm treatment
  • Blood pressure readings
  • 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
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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