Information for health professionals
This page contains specific information relevant to health professionals. If you are looking for Bayside Health Peninsula service information, see Services.
Peninsula Integrated Pain Service is comprised of the Persistent Pain Management Service (PPMS) at The Mornington Centre and the Pain Medicine Clinic (PMC) at Peninsula University Hospital Outpatients.
All patient referrals will now occur through ACCESS: Fax (03) 9125 5862.
Integrated Pain Service Referral Form
Further information on referrals
Given current waiting times of up to 12 months for specialist pain management, and recent analysis showing that nearly half of referred clients either do not engage or do not attend (DNA), the Bayside Health Peninsula Integrated Pain Service is introducing stricter referral requirements. These changes aim to ensure that clients most appropriate for the service are prioritised and seen more promptly.
To support this, referrals must include more comprehensive information and demonstrate compliance with statewide referral criteria (SRC):
Minimum information for referrals to non-admitted specialist services
Chronic pain (Health Independence Program service)
From SRC
Referral to a public hospital health independence program service is NOT appropriate for:
- Patients that are currently not willing to explore living well with pain and not willing to learn to self-manage ongoing pain
- Patients currently undertaking another chronic pain management program
- Patients that have already completed a multidisciplinary, comprehensive chronic pain management program or service for the same identifiable cause of pain where their clinical symptoms, or their readiness to undertake a chronic pain management program, remains unchanged
- Patients who only want an intervention such as an injection or dry needling
- Patients who want to receive services as a compensable patient should not be referred to health service that only provides publicly funded services.
Please note that referrals made solely for the purpose of medication permits will no longer be accepted. Under revised Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) opioid listings (effective 1 October 2020), secondary reviews can now be undertaken by any doctor registered in Australia, and do not require input from a pain specialist. For further details, see here. Thank you for your support in ensuring that clients most appropriate for the service are prioritised and seen more promptly.