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.

  • All referrals to emergency should be discussed with the Burns Service prior to presentation contact details, please refer to Referral information section.
    • burns at the extremes of age – young children and the elderly
    • burns greater than 10% total body surface area (TBSA) in adults
    • burns greater than 5% TBSA in children
    • full thickness burns
    • burns with inhalation injury
    • burns associated with major trauma
    • burns with pre-existing illness
    • burns of special areas – face, hands, feet, genitalia, perineum, major joints and circumferential limb or chest burns
    • burn injury in pregnant women
    • chemical burns
    • electrical burns
    • non-accidental burns

For clinical advice, please telephone the relevant specialty service.

Central Adelaide Local Health Network

Women's and Children's Health Network

Category 1 - appointment clinically indicated within 30 days

  • acute burn referrals discussed with the burns service

Category 2 — appointment clinically indicated within 90 days

  • healed burn that is causing significant functional impairment or discomfort

Category 3 — appointment clinically indicated within 365 days

  • nil

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.

Clinical management advice

Patients can be referred to the burns service by any clinician.

Burns service provides management for the following:

  • acute burns
  • burns surgical intervention
  • elective burns surgery
  • burn scar management
    • rural and remote burn care by ‘burns link specialist clinicians’ and telemedicine consultations.

Resources

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.