General Surgery

Northern Health has five general surgery units that are able to look after many types of general surgery problems at Northern Hospital, Epping, Broadmeadows Hospital and Craigieburn.

These units also look after sub-speciality general surgery patients with complex problems like gall bladder problems, liver problems, large bowel problems, stomach problems, thyroid gland problems, breast problems.

What to expect from the service?

Please refer to individual specialities for unit specific information.
In general, patients referred to the General Surgery Service can expect to receive:

First appointment with a surgeon within days of GP referral for patients diagnosed with cancer and within two weeks for patients with highly suspicious lesions. Patients with benign surgical problems can expect to have an appointment within 8 weeks
Clinic visits with their general surgeon
Clinic visits for cancer patients with medical oncologists, radio-oncologist, oncology nurse practitioner
Access to genetic counselling support if required
In-patient and out-patient surgical care
Access to allied care support including social work, physiotherapy, occupational therapy
Dedicated Interpreter Service
Regular letters to your GP
Multi-disciplinary care from diagnosis through-out their treatment program

Appointment information

How to refer:

A referral is required. Please visit your GP clinic

What to bring:

First appointment: patients are asked to bring:

X-Rays
Any relevant pathology reports
Medicare card
An accurate list of medications
The name and clinic address of your GP.

Ongoing appointments: no requirements but check with individual speciality webpages.

The department provides anaesthetic services across elective and emergency theatres, procedural areas and selected out-of-theatre locations. We are engaged in perioperative medicine, clinical deterioration management, and multidisciplinary decision-making regarding high-risk patients.

Referrals for complex perioperative assessment may be directed via standard outpatient pathways or discussed directly with the on-call anaesthetist for urgent cases. We work collaboratively with surgical, medical and critical care teams across all Northern Health campuses.