Outpatient Appointment
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Call 1300 855 275 to cancel your outpatient appointment
HealthDirect
1800 022 222
TTY 1800 022 226
Statewide professional health advice and information, 24 hours a day seven days a week.
Worrying health problems can occur at anytime and if you are unable to contact your regular doctor, our experienced registered nurses at HealthDirect are ready to take your call. HealthDirect is accessible statewide 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
HealthDirect nurses can provide quick, friendly, professional advice to help you work out what to do and how urgent your problem is. If appropriate, the nurse may transfer your call to the service provider most suited to your needs.
Our nurses can provide self-care advice until face-to-face medical care is obtained. You can also be informed of available services such as GP After Hours Clinics, late night pharmacies, emergency departments and the location of general practitioners near to you.
HealthDirect is a totally confidential service that has strict quality controls to ensure you get the right advice. Some calls may be monitored by a second health professional to ensure these high standards are maintained.
New hotline reduces outpatient waiting lists
A new outpatient clinic and appointment hotline service will help thousands of Western Australians to see specialists in public hospitals sooner rather than later.
Minister for Health Jim McGinty recently opened the new $6 million outpatient clinic at Royal Perth Hospital, which is now treating more than 1,500 people a week in modern and spacious consulting rooms.
In another move to reduce the time it takes to see a specialist, Mr McGinty launched the Outpatient Direct Hotline for all public hospital outpatient clinics. The 1300 hotline is designed to assist people in confirming and/or canceling their appointments, thereby reducing the number of ‘no-shows’ at public hospital outpatient clinics.
Mr McGinty said more than 600,000 outpatient appointments were made in WA public hospitals every year but more than 100,000 were either not kept or cancelled by the patient at the last minute, meaning the hospital could not book another patient in.
“This represents a staggering 12.6 per cent of all outpatient appointments - appointments that could be filled by other patients if the hospitals were notified in time,” he said.
“Such a high number of cancellations or ‘no shows’ significantly slows down the system and is a major cause of increased waiting times for outpatient appointments. “It is also a waste of valuable resources such as clinicians’ time and administration costs.”
A recent study to discover why patients did not cancel appointments found that most people either forgot or did not know who to contact to make the cancellation. “A major reason for this confusion was that every hospital had a separate phone number for outpatient inquiries and separate reminder systems,” Mr McGinty said. “So, by making it easier for people to change or cancel their appointments and change their contact details through the hotline, patients can have their treatment quicker.” The service is already averaging more than 250 calls per day and rising.
The Outpatient Direct Hotline number is 1300 855 275.
