Overview
The clinic treats patients with an end stage, life limiting non-malignant disease. This includes patients with lung disease, heart disease, renal failure and liver failure.
Treatment involves assessment and management of distressing symptoms, with the patient being offered advice on how to manage symptoms at home.
The team takes a holistic approach, looking at symptoms and concerns which may be physical or psycho-social . The team will then work with the patient and carer on goals of care and plans for management, which may include discussions with a social worker about financial concerns and advance care directives.
Getting here
Find us at:
Werribee Mercy Hospital
296 Princes Highway
Werribee Victoria 3030
For more information on getting here, visit Outpatient Clinics or find out more about Werribee Mercy Hospital.
Location details
The SMART clinic is located in the Outpatient clinics building
How can people get access?
The closest car park is the multi-level P5 car park.
To park here enter off the Princes Highway – it is the next entrance after the Emergency Department entrance.
Please do not park in the Emergency Department parking bays.
Follow the signs, along the footpath to the public Outpatient Clinic’s building. This is approximately a three to five minute walk.
The Outpatient Clinics building can be accessed from the main hospital building. Follow the yellow line from front reception.
Opening hours
The SMART clinic runs Monday, 1pm – 5pm.
Your appointment
What to do before
Please see the Outpatient access page for further information of what to do before an appointment.
What to bring
If you have a carer or support person, we encourage you to bring your them with you to the appointment. You can bring more than one carer or support person.
Please bring your advance care directive if you have one.
Please see the Outpatient access page for further information of what to bring.
What to expect on the day
Your first appointment with the doctor may take an hour or more.
Review appointments with the care team may take up to 45 minutes.
More information
Team Composition
Throughout your experience, you may be supported by:
- a palliative care consultant
- a nurse
- a social worker
What questions should you ask
Please consider what questions are right for you. Following are some examples.
- Are there any alternative options for treatment?
- Are there any services or resources to support me or my family?
Opportunities to be involved in research
This clinic is a pilot funded by a Palliative care service innovation and development grant’ by the Department of Health and Human Services. The team may ask your permission to be involved in data collection.
Who to call if you have concerns afterwards
Please contact your general practitioner if you have any concerns about your health.
For health professionals
Our referral instructions and templates page explains how to refer to Mercy Health and provides you with the latest referral forms. Please complete an outpatient referral form AND the Palliative Care SMART clinic supplement.
The clinic treats patients with an end stage, life limiting non-malignant illness. This includes patients with end-stage lung disease, heart disease, renal failure and liver failure.
Treatment involves assessment and management of distressing symptoms, with the patient being offered strategies and advice on how to manage symptoms at home.
Procedural information
The clinical information provided in your referral will determine the triage category and the time frame in which the patient is offered an appointment.
If the condition requires immediate assessment or admission, a referral to the Emergency Department (ED) should be attended to. Please contact the main reception and refer the patient to the ED for clinical review. Referrals for urgent review in the ED should be addressed to the Emergency Department.
How to prepare the patient
Please advise your patient that it takes eight days to process a referral. On day eight a letter will be sent to them and the referrer advising of the referral outcome (either an appointment or allocation to the waiting list). For more information on what happens next, please refer to our understanding the referral process page.
If your patient’s condition changes before they see the specialist, they should either contact their GP or specialist or go to an Emergency Department.
What/when you should refer to us
- Goals of care and/or end of life care planning
- Symptoms secondary to underlying chronic life limiting health condition
- Symptoms addressed within the scope of palliative care are broad, and may include dyspnoea, pain, nausea, vomiting, psychosocial distress
Required Information:
- Investigations
- Recent FBE; UEC; LFT’s,
- Relevant medical imaging (if available)
- Recent assessment of the life-limiting condition, for instance:
- respiratory function test for patients with COPD or ILD
- echo-cardiogram for patients with CCF
- correspondence from the specialist
Our clinic is receiving eReferrals via HealthLink SmartForms. Please see our Refer a patient page for more information.
Contacts
For patients
Outpatient Clinics - Medical/Surgical
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Phone numbers:
Outpatient Clinics - Medical/Surgical
03 8754 6700
- Phone number: 03 8754 6710
- Website: Outpatient access
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About:
Call this number for:
· Appointment questions
· Referral questions
· You want to speak to a nurse about why you are coming to see the specialist
· You want to change your appointment
· You want to tell us you no longer need your appointment
Mercy Palliative Care Services
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Phone numbers:
Mercy Palliative Care Services
1300 369 019
24 hours, 7 days of week
- Website: Mercy Palliative Care
Palliative Care Victoria
- Website: Palliative Care Victoria
For Health Professionals
HealthPathways Melbourne
- Email address: [email protected]
- Website: HealthPathways Melbourne
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About:
HealthPathways Melbourne provides clinicians with a single website to access clinical and referral pathways, and resources. Pathways are created by local GPs, working in partnership with specialists, nurses, allied health and other health professionals.
Mercy Health recommends clinicians to access HealthPathways Melbourne for guidance in assessing, managing and referring for patient conditions (login required).
Referrals to outpatient clinics at Mercy Health will be triaged against clinical information and investigations based on these guidelines.
Referrals that do not meet the required clinical information and investigations will not be accepted.
HealthPathways Melbourne is available for free to health professionals working in the North Western Melbourne and Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network catchments.
Email HealthPathways to request access or if you need to confirm your username and password.
Healthlink SmartForm eReferrals
- Website: au.healthlink.net/support
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About:
HealthLink is a secure digital platform for sending referrals directly from your GP practice software (Best Practice, Genie, Medical Director and MedTech Evolution).
Practices without conformant software can register for a free HealthLink Portal licence by completing the online registration form and noting in the comments/message field that you would like to use the SmartForms, then selecting the two checkboxes – (1) Receive Electronic Correspondence (free of charge) and (3) Send Electronic Smart Forms (My Aged Care, Transport for NSW, Monash Health etc).
Once HealthLink receives your completed registration application, this will be processed and the portal details will be forwarded to you.
eReferral Support Contact Information
- For GPs in the Eastern Melbourne Primary Healthcare Network region wanting to enable eReferrals (HealthLink Smartforms), please contact [email protected]or if urgent (03) 9046 0300.
- For GPs in the North Western Melbourne Primary Healthcare Network region wanting to enable eReferrals (HealthLink Smartforms), please contact HealthLink via phone: 1800 125 036 or email [email protected]
- For issues with HealthLink SmartForms, or to have this solution enabled within your clinical software system, please contact HealthLink on 1800 125 036 or [email protected].
Statewide Referral Criteria for Specialist Clinics - Victoria
- Website: Statewide Referral Criteria
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About:
The Department of Health and Human Services has developed statewide referral criteria to assist GPs and clinicians referring patients to specialist clinics. These referral criteria have been developed to improve access to specialist clinics in public hospitals by improving the quality and appropriateness of referrals.
Making a referral - Werribee Mercy Hospital Emergency Department
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Phone numbers:
Making a referral - Werribee Mercy Hospital Emergency Department
03 8754 3000
6.30am—8.30pm Monday to Friday
8am—8.30pm Saturday, Sunday and public holidays
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About:
- Please ask to speak to the ED Consultant or Senior Doctor in charge.
- Remember to provide your patient with a comprehensive referral letter to accompany the patient along with results from all recent investigations including pathology results, X-ray results and film.
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