Community Access

Community Access is a single point of contact within Northern Health that receives and processes referrals for the following community-based services.

What to expect from the service?

Community Access is a single point of contact within Northern Health that receives and processes referrals for the following community-based services:

Community Therapy Service (CTS)
Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP)
Hospital Admission Risk Program (HARP) including Diabetes

Home and Community Care Program for Younger People (HACC PYP)
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
Paediatric Allied Health Service

When making a referral please include the following information:

Patient’s full name
Patient’s Date of Birth
Patient’s address
Patient or nominated persons contact Phone number
Preferred mode of contact (Phone, Email, SMS or Letter)

Medicare Card number (if patient doesn’t Medicare please document this on the referral)
Primary General Practitioner
Clinical reason for referral
Supporting clinical information including medical history and list of current medications (see specific service and clinic criteria for relevant information for each service)

Processing Referrals

We aim to notify the patient and referrer of the outcome of the referral within 8 working days of receipt of referral. If the referral meets service criteria and therefore accepted we will try to offer an appointment in the first instance. If we cannot, we will add you to the waiting list.

We aim to make appointments:

Category 1 (urgent) referrals within 30 days
Category 2 referrals will be booked in 6+ weeks.

If you would like to discuss the waiting time for a specific service please contact us via phone (03) 9495 3443. If the referral has been declined the referrer will be notified of the reason.