Overview
Here you will the specialist doctor to talk about the difficulties you are having with your varicose veins, vascular ulcers or blood flow.
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.
Opening hours
The Vascular Clinic runs once a month on:
- Thursday, 9am–12:30pm.
Your appointment
What to do before
Information about your outpatient clinic appointment is included in the Outpatient access page along with details on how to find us.
More information
Team Composition
Throughout your journey you may be supported by:
- a nurse
- a specialist doctor
For health professionals
Due to unforeseen changes to our Outpatient Clinic services, we are unable to receive referrals for our Vascular Clinic until further notice. If you have a patient who requires immediate review by a vascular surgeon, please contact an alternative health service. We will inform you when referrals resume.
Previous referral requirements:
Referrals to this service are assessed against the Statewide Referral Criteria. Please utilise HealthPathways to assist in making the referral. Referrals which do not meet the Statewide Referral Criteria will be declined.
Our referral instructions and templates page explains how to refer to Mercy Health and provides you with the latest referral forms.
The Vascular Clinic sees patients with symptoms of the vascular system needing specialist review.
Investigations and results
- CT/medical imaging
- MRI
- ultrasound
- pathology.
Reason and Required Investigations (essential with referral)
Claudication
- Duplex ultrasound of lifestyle limiting claudication or worse (essential with referral)
- CXR +/- CT Abdomen/pelvis (where appropriate)
- recent FBE; U&E’s: ESR: LFT: Fasting Glucose; Lipid profile (essential
with referral).
Varicose veins including thrombophlebitis
- recent FBE; U&E’s; Lipid profile; Creatinine in patients over 50yrs of age (essential with referral).
Treatment for cosmetic management of varicose veins including sclerotherapy is NOT provided at the Werribee Mercy Clinic
- venous duplex scanning (essential with referral)
- consider graduated stockings where applicable
- FBE, ESR & CRP if inflammation suspected (essential with referral).
Axillary vein Thrombosis
- recent FBE;U&E’s; LFT (essential with referral).
Carotid disease
- recent FBE; U&E; Lipid profile (essential with referral)
- X-rays (AP and Lateral) (essential with referral)
- Carotid ultrasound (essential with referral) +/- Carotid angiography.
Peripheral vascular disease
- recent FBE; U&E’s Lipid profile (essential with referral)
- duplex U/Sound. (essential with referral)
- Angiography +/- CT scan.
Leg/foot Ulcers. Non healing wounds
- recent EFT; U&E; blood glucose for diabetics (essential with referral)
- recent wound swab (essential with referral)
- consider FBE.
Rest pain or ischaemic changes
- any urgent cases refer to the emergency department
- recent FBE, U&E (essential with referral)
- Doppler ultrasound (essential with referral)
- Ultrasound +/- CT scan.
DVT
- any new/urgent cases to be referred to the emergency department.
TIA/CVA
- any new/urgent cases to be referred to the emergency department.
Aortic or abdominal aneurysms
- any new/urgent cases to be referred to a tertiary emergency department.
Immediate assessment or admission criteria (not an exhaustive list)
Check criteria for immediate assessment or admission.
- new onset of TIA/CVA
- crescendo or multiple TIA/RIND (reversible ischaemic neurological disability
- Ischaemic and threatened limb
- Stenosis of internal carotid(duplex scan positive) with TIA/RIND or amaurosis fugax
- Popliteal aneurysm >2.0cm diameter
- any changes to aneurysm (abdominal or aortic)
- axillary vein thrombosis
- acute Ischaemic changes, tissue loss or gangrene contact ED
- Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
- rest pain or ischaemic changes
- ascending thrombophlembitis to level of the saphenofemoral junction
- any patient who is unwell or hemodynamically unstable
- any patient who does not fit into the Urgent category 1 waiting guidelines who needs specialist review
- Pulmonary Embolism (PE).
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 go to Emergency Department.
What/when you should refer to us
Our clinic is receiving eReferrals via HealthLink SmartForms. Please see our Refer a patient page for more information.
What/when you should not refer to us
If patients present with the following, refer to Emergency Department:
- patients with critical fistula flow
- new or urgent aneurysms
- new or urgent DVT’s
- new or urgent TIA/CVA
Exclusion Criteria: Vascular Clinics
The following Orthopedic conditions are not routinely seen at Werribee Mercy Hospital:
- patients that are being treated for the same condition at another Victorian Public Hospital
- patients with a BMI over 40 will be excluded from surgery at Werribee Mercy Hospital
- patients with critical fistula flow to be referred to their treating hospital. Not seen at WMH.
Contacts
In case of emergency, call 000
For patients
Outpatient Clinics - Medical/Surgical
-
Phone numbers:
Outpatient Clinics - Medical/Surgical
03 8754 6700
- Phone number: 03 8754 6710
- Website: Outpatient access
-
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
For Health Professionals
HealthPathways Melbourne
- Email address: [email protected]
- Website: HealthPathways Melbourne
-
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
-
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
-
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.
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