Geriatrics and Rehabilitation Service
The Geriatrics and Rehabilitation service at Mount Lawley Hospital is comprised of inpatient and outpatient services.
Inpatient Services
- Aged Care Rehabilitation Unit
- General Rehabilitation Unit
The on-call geriatrician at RPH can be contacted for advice via 9224 2244. Alternatively the EMHS Older Adult Hub provides assessment and care coordination for older adults by a multidisciplinary team and can be contacted on 1300 229 080 Monday to Friday 8:30am-4pm.
The Geriatrics and Community Rehabilitation (CR) Outpatient service provides multidisciplinary rehabilitative therapy to patients living in the designated EMHS / RPBMLG catchment area.
The multidisciplinary team aims to provide a coordinated patient-centred service to patients with an impairment, activity limitation or restriction due to a health condition or following an injury.
Outpatient services include
- Older Adult Continence service
- Falls clinic
- Fragile bone Clinic
- General Geriatric Evaluation and Management
- General Rehabilitation
- Memory Clinic
-
Parkinson's Disease (PD) & Movement Disorder Multidisciplinary Clinic
Referrals for outpatient services can be made via the Central Referral Service.
If any of the following are present or suspected, refer the patient to the emergency department (via ambulance if necessary) or seek emergent medical advice if in a remote region.
- Very rapid onset of cognitive +/- other neurological symptoms
- Suspected delirium deemed unsafe to manage in the community by the treating medical practitioner
- Imminent safety risk to self or other
Referrals for Aged Care Assessment and made within the My Aged Care central Gateway.
MLH is an adult service, referrals for child and adolescent health services should be directed to Perth Childrens Hospital.
Country patients: Visit AHCWA MAPPA
MLH does not provide IMMEDIATE access services
To arrange an immediate review or advice, please phone the RPH switchboard on 9224 2244 and ask to speak with the on-call clinician for Geriatric Medicine.
After verbal clinical handover and agreement with the Geriatrician that the patient requires an appointment with RPH within 7 days please:
Secure message via healthlink address: rphbrief or
Email the patient’s referral to RPH.OutpatientReferrals@health.wa.gov.au
Ensure the referral is:
- marked IMMEDIATE
- the name of the registrar or consultant spoken with is written on the referral
- all essential referral information, investigations, clinical photos are included
Alternatively contact the EMHS Older Adult Hub (OAH) on 1300 229 080 Mon-Fri 8am-4.30pm
For Patients residing in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) in WA consider contacting the RPH Co-HIVE service on 9224 1807 and/or the Residential Care Line (RCL) on 6457 3146
Please send all referrals via Central Referral Service using the General Adult Referral form (external website).
MLH provides Geriatric and Community Rehabilitation services for the following clinical streams:
- Older Adult Continence service
- Falls clinic
- Fragile bone Clinic
- General Geriatric Evaluation and Management
- General Rehabilitation
- Memory Clinic
- Parkinson's Disease (PD) & Movement Disorder Multidisciplinary Clinic
Please refer to the RPBMLG Geriatrics & Rehabilitation referral criteria summary to review required clinical information and investigations that will assist the clinical teams to triage patient need and urgency.
Minimum Standard Referral information is included in the standard Referral-form-templates and is available at Minimum-standard-for-outpatient-referrals-central-referral-service.
Minimum Standard Referral information is included in the standard.
Patients can be flagged for Video or Telephone consultations at referral, triage or follow-up.
Named referrals for Geriatric & Community Rehabilitation will be allocated a suitably qualified specialist to see the patient. Note that these referrals are booked on a first on, first off principle from the outpatient waitlist.
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.
Always ensuring full condition clinical pathways have been explored via
- Clinician Assist WA
- Clinician Assist: Older Adults
- Clinician Assist: Parkinson's
- Clinician Assist: Osteoporosis
Referral to Contracted Medical Practitioners within EMHS. See our full list of specialists here:
BHS: Bentley Health Service - Contracted Medical Practitioners
AHS: Armadale Health Service - Contracted Medical Practitioners
Midland SJG: Find A Specialist Doctor | St John of God (sjog.org.au)
Referral to a private or community provider
Please note that where appropriate and where available, Geriatric & Community Rehabilitation referrals 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.
The following are not routinely provided in a public Geriatric and Community Rehabilitation service
- Acquired Brain Injury: refer to WA ABI rehabilitation service
- Older Adult Mental Health: refer to specialist Mental health services - Clinician Assist: Older Adult Mental Health
- Certification for Driving: Clinician Assist: Driver Assessment
EMHS is responsible for providing public health services to the people who reside within its boundaries.
The catchment map (PDF 400KB) outlines the suburb catchment areas for East Metropolitan Health Service (EMHS). The country areas that flow to EMHS are Kimberley, Pilbara and Wheatbelt.
Referral to a hospital for assessment and/or treatment is based around multiple criteria. These include:
- Place of residence – most hospitals have catchments to help service people closer to home. For country patients, the residence of family with whom they will reside whilst attending appointments can be taken into consideration
- Age – MLH is an Adult Hospital, children are only treated by some hospitals
- Hospital location of specialty services – some conditions need designated specialist services that are not available at all hospitals
-
Please use this information to guide referrals to the hospital servicing your patient's residence and inform your patients of these criteria when you are referring them for public hospital services via the Central Referral Service (CRS).
Template
Referrals are made via standard outpatient referral forms.
Immediate referrals
Contact the on-call Geriatrician clinician at RPH on 9224 2244
After verbal handover with RPH clinician confirming your patient needs an appointment within 7 days contact us via:
Healthlink address: rphbhref
Email referral to RPH.OutpatientReferrals@health.wa.gov.au
If appointment is not required within 7 days follow Urgent and Routine referral pathway
Alternatively contact the EMHS Older Adult Hub (OAH) on 1300 229 080
Urgent and routine referrals
Referrals are made via standard outpatient referral forms (external link) to Central Referral Service (external link)
Preferred methods for all referrals
Secure messaging: Referrals are sent via secure messaging at, Healthlink Secure Messaging: crefserv.
Contact CRS
Fax: 1300 365 056
Post: GPO Box 2566, Perth, WA 6831
Enquires: 1300 551 142
While the WA Health Excluded Procedures precludes procedures performed for cosmetic or other non-medical reasons, procedures which meet an identified clinical need to improve the health of the patient may be undertaken in public hospitals.
To avoid patients unnecessarily waiting for and attending appointments in cases where surgery cannot be offered at Royal Perth Hospital, referral criteria have been established.
Visit the Royal Perth Hospital - Excluded Procedures Outpatient Referrals page for more information.