Skip to main navigation Skip to content
In an Emergency Dial  000
Go to homepage

Search whole site

  1. Homepage
  2. Health services
  3. Health professionals
  4. Specialist Clinic referrals (public patients)
Back to Health professionals

Specialist Clinic referrals (public patients)

How to send a referral General referral information Referral forms Clinic waitlist times Referral guidelines

How to send a referral

If referral for care is indicated please list all of the general referral information, reason for request, and essential information as indicated below.

Referrals can be sent by:

Smart Referrals

Digital referrals in your practice software that include templates linked with referral criteria for quality handover for any public hospital.

Secure messaging

Medical Objects:   HM4101000R8
HealthLink EDI: materref     

Fax       

 07 3163 8548

For fax and secure messaging our latest Mater Adult Referral Form or Antenatal Form are available to embed into most major Practice Management software systems.  

General referral information

Please note that catchment criteria apply to referrals for Mater Hospital Brisbane. Patients who reside outside the Mater SEQ Catchment (which includes Metro South HHS and West Moreton HHS) may not be accepted. Please check the specialty referral guidelines before completing a referral.

Please note:

  • 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 becoming pregnant) may affect the urgency categorisation and should be communicated as soon as possible.

  • 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.

Refer in writing to a named Mater specialist and please include:

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

Referring practitioner details

  • Full name
  • Full address
  • Contact details – telephone, fax, email
  • Provider number
  • Date of referral
  • Signature

Relevant clinical information about the condition

  • Presenting symptoms (evolution and duration)
  • Physical findings
  • Details of previous treatment (including systemic and topical medications prescribed) including the course and outcome of the treatment
  • Body mass index (BMI)
  • Details of any associated medical conditions which may affect the condition or its treatment (e.g. diabetes), noting these must be stable and controlled prior to referral
  • Current medications and dosages
  • Drug allergies
  • Alcohol, tobacco and other drugs use

Reason for request

  • To establish a diagnosis
  • For treatment or intervention
  • For advice and management
  • For specialist to take over management
  • Reassurance for GP/second opinion
  • For a specified test/investigation the GP can't order, or the patient can't afford or access
  • Reassurance for the patient/family
  • For other reason (e.g. rapidly accelerating disease progression)
  • Clinical judgement indicates a referral for specialist review is necessary

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.)

Referral forms

Mater Hospital Brisbane uses a standard referral form to access public clinics, which must be used for all referrals the Mater Adult specialist clinic. 

To eliminate the need for Mater to contact you for clarity around any clinical information or named referrals, please ensure forms are completed in full before presentation back to the clinic.

Adult Outpatient Specialist Clinic referral guidelines have been created to assist with appropriate referral pathways for each outpatient specialty.

If your patient prefers to be seen privately, please refer directly to one of Mater's visiting private specialists.

Outpatient Clinic Forms

Mater Hospital Brisbane specialist clinics referral form is available as a PDF form for download or as a template ready for integration into your practice management software.

  • Download the interactive PDF referral form (v 51.00 last updated Sept 2024) then fax completed form to 07 3163 8548. Please note, this format may not be compatible with some browsers. If you are experiencing difficulty downloading this form, please save the form then right click, select 'open with' and select Adobe Acrobat.

Download interactive PDF referral

  •  Alternatively, you can download the standard PDF referral form (v 5.00 last updated September 2024) and fax the completed form to 07 3163 8548

Download standard PDF referral

  • Referral template forms for practice management software can be downloaded below, enabling required fields to be auto completed from your practice management system. The completed form can be faxed to 07 3163 8548 or by secure messaging where enabled.

Tip: Prior to importing the template into your practice management system, you will be required to save it as a document to your local or network drive - do not open the document prior to saving. To complete the import, open and follow the instructions attached to the relevant software template below.

Practice SoftwareTemplateLast updatedInstructions
Medical DirectorMedical Director template v3.4June 2018Open
Best PracticeBest Practice template v 3.4June 2018Open





We will notify you via email when there are updates to the forms.

Referral enquiries and technical support

For information on referrals, criteria, scheduled appointments or technical support for our templates we have implemented a GP Priority phone line: 07 3163 2200.

For questions or feedback regarding referrals to Mater Specialist Clinics email Mater GP Liaison

For more information on templates and e-referrals via secure messaging, view our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

Waitlist times

This information is intended to provide transparency about our service and support your clinical decisions and your conversations with patients around referral pathway options and expectations of care.

The data is supported by Mater’s referral guidelines that provide essential details regarding our access to public outpatient specialist services, our teams of clinicians and the required clinical work up prior to referral.

Our service aims to see all patients within target timeframes and we are always working to reduce waiting times for appointments. Some services have a higher demand than others. This may impact our capacity to see patients within these timeframes and may result in longer waiting times for some clinics.

Outpatient Specialist Clinics Activity

Clinical urgency categories have been defined for use in outpatient services delivered in Queensland publicly funded hospitals. These categories support safe and equitable prioritisation of appointments. 

Clinical categories are based on the information provided in a referral.

Each clinical category has a target timeframe for outpatient clinic appointments to ensure safe care. The category target timeframes are:

  • Category 1 (Urgent): Appointment within 30 days
  • Category 2 (Priority): Appointment within 90 days
  • Category 3 (Routine): Appointment within 365 days

Mater Hospital Brisbane provides waitlist data for publicly funded activity to the Queensland Government for inclusion in performance reporting against Queensland Health outpatient waitlist data and benchmarks.  Please note that catchment criteria applies to referrals for Mater Hospital Brisbane. Patients who reside outside the Mater SEQ Catchment (which includes Metro South HHS and West Moreton HHS) may not be accepted.

View Mater Hospital Brisbane Specialist Outpatient clinic activity and waitlist data

Please note: Mater Young Adult Health Centre Brisbane run outpatient clinics for Cystic fibrosis, Diabetes, Gastroenterology, Gynaecology, Mater Young Adult Support Unit, Post cancer treatment, Intellectual and Developmental Disability, Craniofacial, Respiratory, Rheumatology, Stuttering and Urology.

Patient access for these clinics is via the referral methods outlined below. Referrals for the young adults will be allocated to the appropriate clinic during the triage process. These clinics generally have a shorter waitlist time than the adult outpatient clinics.

Referral guidelines

These referral guidelines are consistent criteria and clinical decision support tools that will help ensure patients referred to Mater for public specialist outpatient services are assessed in order of clinical urgency. Mater has adopted state-wide tools where these are available to ensure referring for public services is as simple and equitable as possible. 

Catchment criteria applies to referrals for Mater Hospital Brisbane. Patients who reside outside the Mater SEQ Catchment (which includes Metro South HHS and West Moreton HHS) may not be accepted.

The guidelines are used by both referring practitioners and Mater specialists to ensure safe and quality referral and consistent low variality in determining how quickly the patient should be seen (urgency category).

These tools have been developed to improve access. They aim to ensure:

  • Specialist outpatient appointments that are delivered in order of clinical urgency
  • Patients are ready for care at their first specialist outpatient appointment
  • Improved referral and communication processes between referrers and specialist outpatient services

If you require information on public maternity care at Mater, then this is available on our maternity referrals page.

Child pages listing