Mater Children's Hospital Neurosciences Unit referral information
To neurologist
Mater Children’s Hospital Neurosciences Unit offers both public and private (right of private practice or ROPP) outpatient appointments. ROPP clinic consultations are billed directly to Medicare, with no out-of- pocket expense to the patient. Patients seen in ROPP clinics require current referrals from their local doctor, addressed to their named neurologist every three to twelve months. These current referrals need to be provided prior to the appointment with the neurologist (they can be brought to clinic administrative staff on the day of clinic). The departmental administrative support staff will remind families when previous referrals are due to expire. Although some paediatric neurologists operate private ROPP outpatient clinics, not all admit patients privately to Mater Hospital. In the event that a patient seen in a ROPP clinic has private health insurance and wishes to avail of this during a hospital admission, the patient is usually admitted privately under a general paediatrician and the paediatric neurologist provides consultation, review and advice during the admission.
When you are first referred for a neurology opinion, the referral is reviewed by medical staff and the urgency with which an appointment is required is assessed. The medical team may request more information at this time. If your child has had previous medical or neurology care elsewhere, medical staff may request detailed information on you child from previous treating doctors. If your child has turns, seizures or abnormal movements then you will be asked to video these (on a home video camera or mobile phone). Once an appointment is allocated to the most appropriate clinic for your child’s problem, administrative support staff will contact you to inform you of this. After your first appointment with the neurologist, follow-up appointments are usually sent out one month prior to the clinic date. Please, therefore, do not contact the department to chase your next appointment unless it is less than four weeks to your next appointment and you have not received an appointment letter.
For EEG
A written referral is required from your current doctor. On receipt of the referral, the urgency with which the EEG is required is assessed and an appointment allocated. Results of the EEG will be sent to the doctor who has requested this test. All EEGs that require sedation, medication, prolonged recording or admission are discussed in a weekly EEG meeting (every Tuesday morning) to ensure that the EEG investigation provides the information that is required by the requesting clinician.
If clinicians wish to discuss the role of an EEG in their patients, they are encouraged to come to this meeting to discuss the clinical case in advance with the attending paediatric neurologist(s) and the EEG neuroscientists. If the EEG request is approved during this meeting, then an appointment is allocated for the investigation. All urgent EEG requests must be discussed with the attending paediatric neurologist in advance so that the EEG investigation can be triaged, planned and then read by the neurologist.
You can download EEG referral information for health professionals, melatonin information for health professionals or an electrophysiology request form.
For nerve conduction and electromyography studies
A written referral is required from your current paediatrician or paediatric neurologist. On receipt of the referral, the urgency with which the test is required is assessed and an appointment allocated. Results of the test will be sent to the doctor who has requested this test. Most children can tolerate the minor discomfort that may occur during nerve conduction or electromyography studies. In a small minority of cases the study may need to be done under sedation or anaesthetic.
You can also download NCS and EMG information and the electrophysiology request form.
Mater Children's Hospital Neurosciences Unit is proudly supported by Mater and Queensland Health.