Clinical Lead - Professor Aileen McGonigal
Catchment criteria may apply for referrals for this service. Patient referrals from outside the Mater SEQ Catchment (which includes Metro South and West Moreton Hospital and Health Services) may not be accepted.
Exception: Mater Neurology Service supports the provision of Advanced Epilepsy services across Queensland. As part of this service, referrals for Advanced Epilepsy management will be accepted statewide.
How to refer:
- Specialist referrals should be addressed to Prof Aileen McGonigal, Director Mater Epilepsy Unit.
- Please include past relevant correspondence and investigations including any neurological assessments.
- Please include the details of where any previous brain imaging studies can be found (QXR, i-Med, Qscan etc).
- Referral to this unit is by specialist neurologist referral, with referral criteria as identified in scope below.
- GP referrals will be accepted if a diagnosis of epilepsy was previously confirmed by a Neurologist and referral criteria are met.
Bulk Billed Clinics
Mater Health offers patients the opportunity to attend bulk billed clinics. To provide your patient with the opportunity to attend a bulk billed clinic, please provide a named referral to Prof Aileen McGonigal.
Contact Us
If you would like to discuss a referral, including clinical criteria, or update the status of a current patient please contact our priority GP phone line on 07 3163 2200
Current Waiting Time for Appointments
We provide up to date data on how long patients are waiting for their first appointment by specialty here.
Conditions in scope
Focal Epilepsy
- Defined by seizure symptoms/signs and/or EEG
- Persistence of seizures despite adequate trial of 2 appropriately chosen anti-seizure medications
- Has undergone routine neuroimaging
- No severe untreated psychiatric issues
- No active substance abuse
- Has consented to a referral for consideration of epilepsy surgery or advanced interventions e.g. neuromodulation (vagal nerve stimulation, deep brain stimulation), clinical trials enrolment
Generalised epilepsy including epileptic encephalopathy
- Defined by clinical history and/or EEG
- Persistence of seizures despite adequate trial of 2 appropriately chosen anti-seizure medications
- For consideration of advanced interventions (corpus callosotomy, neuromodulation, dietary therapies)
Other considerations or modifiers (must be included in all referrals)
- Age
- Seizure frequency
- Epilepsy duration
- Demonstrated good adherence to medical therapy
- Disease progression - accelerated / recent deterioration
- Prior treatments including prior surgery
- Results of prior investigations (EEG, MRI, FDG-PET)
- Results of prior psychiatry / psychology evaluations
Categorisation Times
Available appointments are provided to our patients based on clinical priority. A process of categorisation ensures safety and equity of access.
Category 1 – Urgent Clinically recommended timeframe for initial appointment is 30 days | Category 2 - Priority Clinically recommended timeframe for initial appointment is 90 days | Category 3 - Routine Clinically recommended for initial appointment is 365 days |
No Category 1 criteria | Category applied according to condition and need | Category applied according to condition and need |