Referral to emergency
If any of the following are present or suspected, please refer the patient to the emergency department (via ambulance if necessary) or seek emergent medical advice if in a remote region.
- nil
For clinical advice, please telephone the relevant specialty service.
If clinical advice is required urgently or out of hours, please contact Flinders Medical Centre or the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
Northern Adelaide Local Health Network
- Lyell McEwin Hospital (08) 8182 9000
Southern Adelaide Local Health Network
- Flinders Medical Centre (08) 8204 5511
Women's and Children's Health Network
- Women’s and Children’s Hospital (08) 8161 7000
Category 1 (appointment clinically indicated within 30 days)
- severe obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) confirmed with sleep study or overnight oximetry
Category 2 (appointment clinically indicated within 90 days)
- excessive day-time sleepiness
- mild to moderate OSA confirmed with sleep study or overnight oximetry
- mouth breathing
- snoring with obvious obstructive features (apnoea/choking) and:
- associated with failure to thrive
- witnessed sleep apnoea
Category 3 (appointment clinically indicated within 365 days)
- hypertrophic tonsils
- chronic intermittent snoring without disordered breathing
Essential referral information
Completion required before first appointment to ensure patients are ready for care. Please indicate in the referral if the patient is unable to access mandatory tests or investigations as they incur a cost or are unavailable locally.
- age
- past medical/surgical history
- current medications
- allergies and sensitivities
- onset, duration, and progression of symptoms
- observations and description of sleep patterns including:
- apnoeic episodes
- disturbed sleep/night terrors
- enuresis/bruxism
- restlessness
- snoring
- snorting arousals
- symptoms when awake including:
- behavioural concerns including irritability/hyperactivity
- poor school performance
- excessive tiredness/sleepiness
- gagging on solid food (hypertrophic tonsils)
- progressive weight loss or poor weight gain
- epworth sleepiness scale
- naso-oropharyngeal examination including:
- hypertrophic tonsils (grading scale)
- nasal obstruction
- craniofacial features
- relevant diagnostic/imaging reports including location of company and accession number
Additional information to assist triage categorisation
- sleep study
Clinical management advice
Consider joint referral for sleep physician to confirm obstructive sleep apnoea diagnosis whilst waiting for ear, nose and throat review.
Triaging for referrals is based on clinical symptoms and is not affected by the size of tonsils.
Please utilise the relevant Aboriginal Liaison Units (ALU) to provide support to Aboriginal families.
Clinical resources
- Australasian Sleep Association - Health professionals information
- Australian Family Physician - Tonsillotomy: An alternative surgical option to total tonsillectomy in children with obstructive sleep apnoea
- Epworth Sleepiness Scale - Assessment Tool
- Therapeutic Guidelines – Sleep-disordered breathing in children
- Women's and Children's Hospital Aboriginal Liaison Unit / Taikurrinthi
- Flinders Medical Centre Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Unit / Karpa Ngarrattendi
- Alternative ear health services and resources for Aboriginal children in South Australia
Consumer resources
- Sleep Health Foundation - Fact sheets
- Lung Foundation Australia – Obstructive sleep apnoea patient information
- Alternative ear health services and resources for Aboriginal children in South Australia
Reason for request
- to establish a diagnosis
- for treatment or intervention
- for advice and management
- for specialist to take over management
- for a specified test/investigation the General Practitioner cannot order
- for other reason (e.g. rapidly accelerating disease progression)
- transfer of care from another tertiary service
- clinical judgement indicates a referral for specialist review is necessary.
Patient demographic details
- full name, including aliases
- date of birth
- residential and postal address
- telephone contact number/s – home, mobile and alternative
- Medicare number, where eligible
- name of the parent or caregiver, if appropriate
- preferred language and interpreter requirements
- identifies as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
Clinical modifiers
- impact on employment
- impact on education
- impact on home
- impact on activities of daily living
- impact on ability to care for others
- impact on personal frailty or safety
- identifies as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
Other relevant information
- Willingness to have surgery, where surgery is a likely intervention.
- Choice to be treated as a public or private patient.
- Compensable status, e.g. DVA, Work Cover, Motor Vehicle Insurance, etc.
- Relevant social history, including identifying if you feel your patient is from a vulnerable population, under guardianship/out-of-home care arrangements and/or requires a third party to receive correspondence on their behalf.
- Triage of a specialist outpatient referral is based on clinical decision making to allocate an appropriate urgency categorisation.
- Where appropriate and where available, the referral may be streamed to an associated public allied health and/or nursing service. Access to some specific services may include initial assessment and management by associated public allied health and/or nursing, which may either facilitate or negate the need to see the public medical specialist.
- A change in patient circumstance (such as condition deteriorating or pregnancy) may affect the urgency categorisation and should be communicated as soon as possible.
- All new referrals will be triaged by a consultant and appointment times scheduled according to clinical urgency.
Adolescents transitioning from paediatric to adult specialist services require a formal handover from paediatric specialist clinician to adult specialist clinician as well as a formal referral from the referring specialist to ensure initial transfer of care is completed.
The General Practitioners role in this process is to provide support to patients as part of holistic care. All ongoing referrals to specialists can subsequently be provided by the General Practitioner once the transfer of care has occurred.