How to refer your patient to Metro North Health

Clinical Prioritisation Criteria

Clinical Prioritisation Criteria (CPC) are Queensland wide clinical decision (referral guidelines) support tools. They provide clinical assessment, management and referral advice for health providers. CPC are developed and regularly updated by a multi-disciplinary team of hospital and primary care clinicians to ensure the criteria are clinically relevant.

Referrals must include the essential information as listed in CPC referral guidelines for the referral to be accepted. Referrals will be returned if they do not contain the essential referral information. CPC referral guidelines are included in GP Smart Referrals.

The criteria make sure:

• referrals have all the information required for triage, this assists in appointments are given in order of clinical urgency
• patients are more likely to be ready for care at their first appointment
• improved referral and communication processes between referrers and specialist outpatient services.

Find out more about Clinical Prioritisation Criteria.

CPC and Metro North referral guidelines are listed by specialty and condition on Refer Your Patient.

HealthPathways

HealthPathways is designed to provide clinicians in our region with up-to-date evidence-based patient assessment and management, referral and service information in an easy-to-access web and mobile-friendly format.

HealthPathways can be used at the point of care by GPs, nurses, allied health and other health professionals. HealthPathways contains state-wide Clinical Prioritisation Criteria (CPC) information and integrates with GP Smart Referrals, ensuring faster, streamlined processing of referrals to Queensland public hospitals. HealthPathways are continually updated and the suite of pathways is ever expanding.

To access HealthPathways, register on the HealthPathways website or call 07 3630 7300 Monday to Friday during business hours.

HealthPathways is moving to individual logins from November 2025. Further information is available on HealthPathways.

Referrals to our health services

Metro North Health Referral Hub – Central Patient Intake Unit (CPIU)

Metro North Central Patient Intake Unit (CPIU) coordinates primary care referrals to Metro North Health (MNH) outpatient services. CPIU is the single point of entry for Metro North.
Referrals sent directly to a MNH outpatient department, bypassing CPIU, increases the risk of the referral being lost or delays in actioning the referral leading to potential delays in patient care.

CPIU is staffed by administration officers and clinical nurses. Clinical nurses review all referrals where the clinical pathway has not been specified to minimise delays.

For more information, please see Metro North Central Patient Intake Fact Sheet and Metro North Central Patient Intake Unit FAQs.

How to refer

Referrals can be sent to CPIU using one of the following 3 methods (in order of preference):

1. GP Smart Referrals (GPSR) – preferred method
2. Secure messaging/eReferrals templates
3. Fax – not recommended

Please be aware that CPIU are unable to accept emailed referrals. This is due to potential privacy or cyber security breaches and the risk of data theft of patient confidential information.

GP Smart Referrals

GP Smart Referrals (GPSR) integrates with Best Practice or Medical Director practice management systems. If your practice doesn’t use Best Practice or Medical Director, you can send electronic referrals using secure messaging & eReferral templates.

Benefits for GPs:

• much easier to include all essential information required in a referral.
  • The GPSR condition referral templates are aligned to Clinical Prioritisation Criteria. The templates prompt the inclusion of essential information and pull pathology and investigations from your practice software, making it easier for GPs to include all required information for your referral to be accepted.
• can attach images and files (up to 25Mb) – not possible in e-referral templates
• only way to access a range of “Request for Advice” services from Metro North Health hospital specialists
• displays Category 1,2 & 3 outpatient wait times for different clinics – please note these are indicative only
• receive referral notifications and correspondence
• ability to track the progress of the referral
• easier to provide continuation referrals
• awareness of services available across Metro North Hospitals
• withdraw a referral if no longer required
• available across the whole of Queensland Health (helpful to find the most appropriate service if your patient lives in another Hospital and Health Service region)

How to register for Smart Referrals (if your practice is not already registered)

1. Complete Practice Registration form
2. Complete Terms of Use document (provided following Practice Registration)
3. Install Smart Referrals into your practice management software – details provided following practice registration
4. Complete Smart Referrals training – face to face and online training and resources offered on Smart Referrals | Metro North Health.

GPSR Registration and training/support

If you require assistance in registering for or training or support in using GPSR, please contact us at MetroNorthGPLO@health.qld.gov.au.

Technical and software support

If you require technical support, contact Smart Referrals via:

Email: QH-SmartReferrals@health.qld.gov.au

Phone: 1300 478 439 and select option 2 – available 24 hours a day.

Using secure messaging/eReferral

If practices are unable to use GP Smart Referrals, GPs can refer patients via secure messaging & eReferral templates.

Use your existing practice software to send referrals to Central Patient Intake Unit via:

4. Medical Objects ID: MQ40290004P
5. HealthLink EDI: qldmnhhs

eReferral templates (.rtf) and referral template importing instructions are available via Brisbane North PHN Practice Support.

For more information or assistance, contact the Practice Support team.

Using fax

CPIU only accepts faxed referrals from practices that are:

• not computerised,
• use software that is incompatible with GP Smart Referrals or secure messaging (Medical Objects/HealthLink)
• when sending investigations or images that cannot be attached to a referral sent via secure messaging e-referral templates (investigations and imaging can be attached in GP Smart Referrals).

Fax can degrade the quality of referral and has a higher risk of failed document transmission. Impacted referrals will be returned to your practice for review and resubmission.

If you require support with faxing, please contact CPIU via the GP & health professionals referral enquiry line (1300 364 938) between 8.00 am and 4.30 pm, Monday to Friday.

What happens when you refer to Metro North Health

When a GP or another clinician refers to Metro North Health, the following process occurs:

1. Referral is received by Central Patient Intake Unit (CPIU).
   The GP/clinician receives a notification that the referral has been received (if sent via electronic referral methods only).
2. CPIU reviews the referral and registers the patient before navigating the referral to the most appropriate Metro North service. CPIU may return the referral to the referrer if there is an issue with the document. CPIU will notify the referrer if a referral has been redirected to another service closer to the patient’s location.
3. Referral is reviewed by either:
   1. Streaming Outpatient Referral Team (SORT)
   2. Specialist Outpatient Services teams at Metro North facilities

If your referral is missing essential clinical information, the referral will be returned via GP Smart Referrals, Kiteworks, fax or post advising of the information required for the referral to be accepted. The patient will also receive a notification regarding the referral.

Complete referrals are reviewed and categorised based on the Clinical Prioritisation Criteria before waitlisting the patient and generating referral correspondence to the referrer and the patient to advise they are on the wait list.

Please allow 5 days for processing referrals. Please do not resend referrals during this 5‑day period. If you have not received an acknowledgement within 5 days, please contact CPIU on 1300 364 938 before resending the referral. This reduces duplicate referral management.

Kiteworks

If you are not using GP Smart Referrals, you may receive documents from the hospital via “Kiteworks”. Kiteworks is an approved secure encrypted delivery method used to send patient identifiable information.

CPIU will contact your practice to obtain your nominated practice email address that is associated with Kiteworks before returning.

CPIU will always email Kiteworks onboarding information to your practice, should you need to set up the Kiteworks plug in for your email, to help your team reset their password, or provide more information to help problem solve if you are experiencing any issues.

CPIU do not manage Kiteworks accounts, this is the responsibility of the practice

When a referral needs more information, CPIU will always email your practice from the email account: CPI-Exceptions@health.qld.gov.au

The subject line of the referral will contain the patients surname and reason for return.

CPIU may contact your practice if no delivery receipt is received or if a ‘deleted not read alert’ is received. This is to ensure that you have received the referral correspondence

Kiteworks documents MUST be downloaded within 60 calendar days, or they will expire.

Please contact CPIU via 1300 364 938 Monday – Friday, 8.00 am and 4.30 pm, if you need any documents to be re-sent to your practice, or if you are struggling to download a document.