Palliative Care

Palliative care referral

If the patient’s care needs have become urgent, please call the Palliative Care registrar on call on

Eligibility

At least one must be met for the patient to be eligible for referral.

Patient meets Alfred Health Palliative Care referral criteria — see full PDF

Red flags

Indicate urgent (Category 1) referral or emergency assessment.

Acute deterioration, life-threatening features or symptoms requiring urgent specialist input — contact the on-call registrar or refer to ED

Routine referral criteria

Determine Category 2 or 3 urgency.

Initial primary-care work-up complete (history, examination, baseline investigations per Alfred guideline)

Symptoms persist or progress despite primary-care management

Usually managed in primary care

Patients who are already linked with another palliative care physician or clinic
Patients who are not known to or undergoing treatment at Alfred Health - consider referral to the relevant Community Palliative Care Service. Please contact our triage nurse on 0447032131 if you would like to discuss this
Patients with chronic, non-malignant pain are usually not suitable for review in the Palliative Care clinic. Please contact our triage nurse on 0447032131 if you would like to discuss this
Children under 18 years of age are generally not seen at The Alfred. If you are referring a patient under the age of 18 please visit the Victorian Paediatric Palliative Care Program website
Refer to the full Alfred Health PDF guideline for complete inclusion / exclusion criteria, required investigations and triage categories.