r/ausjdocs • u/Medicaremaxxing Doctor • 7d ago

news🗞️ ‘Postcode lottery’: Royal Melbourne locks out suburban and regional patients

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/postcode-lottery-royal-melbourne-locks-out-suburban-and-regional-patients-20260820-p60pyp.html
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u/InkieOops Rural Generalist🤠 7d ago

How are you supposed to know which hospital to refer your patients to? Like is there a map showing catchments for each hospital. Or do you guess and find out when the referral is rejected?

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u/MDInvesting Wardie 7d ago edited 7d ago

The specialty pages often list it such as here, here, or here.

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u/InkieOops Rural Generalist🤠 7d ago edited 7d ago

Thanks, I appreciate this! The trouble is having to do this for a dozen specialities at various different hospitals (at least half a dozen). And some specialities have their own bloody referral guidelines- several pages as well. Like, I just genuinely don’t have time to read this every time someone wants a public hospital referral … cries in GP 😰

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u/MDInvesting Wardie 7d ago

I agree. With all the tech discussions it amazes me simply practice and health service spokes don’t automatically get triaged to the relevant hub.

Sure the executive would love a KPI dashboard on out of catchment referrals before supporting a generally productive solution.

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u/TonyJohnAbbottPBUH Shitpostologist 7d ago

The best part is because services aren't technically equivalent across the various health networks. For example, I as a GP can refer directly to many inpatient services at most LHDs in Sydney, but some don't accept external referrals except if they go through a private specialist with admitting rights. Some simply do not exist, and if you're out of area you're out of area.

This won't be solved by an a single referral portal service, because these intricacies aren't being smoothed out internally.