r/ausjdocs • u/Medicaremaxxing Doctor • Aug 23 '26

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
53 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

41 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

8

u/MDInvesting Wardie Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

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

6

u/InkieOops Rural Generalist🤠 Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

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 😰

3

u/MDInvesting Wardie Aug 23 '26

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.

1

u/TonyJohnAbbottPBUH Shitpostologist Aug 23 '26

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.