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Clinical Prioritisation Criteria consultation

SA Health’s initial focus is to invest in reducing waiting times so accessing outpatient appointments is easier, more transparent, and more effective. Through collaboration with a number of clinicians across SA, the Outpatient Redesign Project aspires to create sustainability in improved access to services, transparency, governance and accountability.

One of the initiatives is to develop consistent and publicly available Clinical Prioritisation Criteria or CPC.

The CPC are clinical decision-making support tools that assist in ensuring patients referred are clinically categorised and accepted based on standardised statewide clinical referral criteria.

Aims

The CPC aims for:

transparency of outpatient criteria between Local Health Networks (LHNs), primary care and the public
health professionals to be enabled with accurate and consistent specialty referral criteria and diagnostics required to support patient focussed decision making
patients to have accurate and consistent specialty referral criteria and categorisation to improve their health literacy and enable informed decision making
equitable assessment of patients regardless of where they live
specialist outpatient appointments are delivered in order of clinical urgency
patients who are ready for care at their first specialist outpatient appointment
referral and communication process improvements between referrers (e.g. primary care) and specialist outpatient services
increased referral quality by LHNs being transparent in the information and diagnostics required to support timely access to the most appropriate care

Consultation on CPC clinical specialities

The CPC have been developed by a multidisciplinary team of specialist clinicians including doctors, GPs, nurses and allied health professionals.

Consultation is open on the following specialities:

Breast and Endocrine Surgery — adult
Cardiology — adult
Gastroenterology — paediatric
Orthopaedics — adult
Vascular — adult

Breast and Endocrine Surgery CPC open for consultation

Consultation closes 4 April 2025

Consultation is open for the adult Breast & Endocrine Surgery CPC (PDF 336KB) includes the following conditions:

Breast Cancer/Breast Lump
Breast Pain
Breast Reduction
Endocrine Surgical Conditions
High Risk of Breast Cancer
Mastitis
Nipple Concerns

Cardiology CPC open for consultation

Consultation closes 4 April 2025

Consultation is open for the adult Cardiology CPC (PDF 443KB) includes the following conditions:

Angina, Myocardial Ischaemia or Chest Pain
Atrial Fibrillation / Flutter (AF)
Heart Failure (HF)
Murmur
Palpitations
Syncope and Pre-Syncope

Gastroenterology CPC open for consultation

Consultation closes 4 April 2025

Consultation is open for the paediatric Gastroenterology CPC (PDF 566KB) includes the following conditions:

Abdominal Pain
Altered Bowel Habit
Coeliac Disease
Gastrointestinal Bleeding
Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Iron Deficiency Anaemia with Suspected Gastrointestinal Cause
Liver Dysfunction
Nutritional and Weight Concerns
Upper Gastrointestinal Dysfunction

Orthopaedics CPC open for consultation

Consultation closes 4 April 2025

Consultation is open for the adult Orthopaedics CPC (PDF 592KB) includes the following conditions:

Achilles Tendon
Basal Thumb Arthritis
De Quervain’s Tensynovitis
Dupuytren’s Contracture
Foot and Ankle Arthritis
Foot and Ankle Deformity
Ganglion
Heel Pain
Hip Pain (Acute and Chronic)
Knee Pain (Acute and Chronic)
Peripheral Nerve Entrapment – Carpal Tunnel/Ulnar Nerve
Shoulder and Elbow (Acute and Chronic)
Spinal (Orthopaedic)
Trauma
Trigger Finger or Stenosing Tenosynovitis
Wrist Pain

Vascular CPC open for consultation

Consultation closes 4 April 2025

Consultation is open for the adult Vascular CPC (PDF 472KB) includes the following conditions:

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA)
Carotid Artery Disease
Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD)
Varicose Veins

How to provide feedback

Feedback on the above listed CPCs can be provided via email to Health.CPC@sa.gov.au. Refer to the individual specialities for closing dates.

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Last updated: 04 Mar 2025