Refugee Health

We provide specialist care for immigrants, refugees and travellers with a range of conditions, including infectious diseases and nutritional deficiencies.

Key points

Specialist care for immigrants, refugees and travellers
Provision of clinics and programs of ongoing care
Medicare ineligible asylum seekers are provided full medical care including, pathology, diagnostic, pharmaceutical and other services in Victorian hospitals

Patients need a referral from their GP or healthcare provider. Access referral information

What we do

We provide clinics and programs of ongoing care for new arrivals and asylum seekers who have varying levels of access to Medicare, work rights, housing and government assistance.

Targeted and timely health care promotes successful resettlement for refugees within Victoria.

Medicare ineligible asylum seekers are provided full medical care including, pathology, diagnostic, pharmaceutical and other services in Victorian hospitals. Patients in this category are not billed. Where appropriate they should be referred to an appropriate support or advocacy agency.

Our Refugee Health program is funded by the Department of Health, Victoria to provide support and advice to Victoria’s refugee health community and includes clinics at RMH, outreach clinics in rural Victoria, education sessions and programmatic evaluation.

Who can use our service

Newly arrived adult humanitarian entrants or clients of refugee background, or asylum seekers, who have any of the following:

Health undertaking
Complex health needs or mental health concerns and may need referral
Can’t easily access a local GP

Our clinics

Clinic name	Location	Options
Refugee Assessment Clinic	The RMH Parkville	Medicare

Our clinics

Refugee Assessment Clinic

The RMH Parkville

Medicare

For patients

For health professionals

Referrals

We accept GP and specialist referrals:

Use the RMH referral form or a template from your own system
Complete and fax your referral to Specialist Clinics (Outpatients) on (03) 9342 4234

We do not accept email referrals.

What to include in your referral

As outlined by the Department of Health, referral requests should include:

Patient demographic information
Referrer demographic information
Reason for referral
Presenting problem
Service(s) requested
Required referral information specified by statewide or local referral criteria
Current patient management
Impact of the problem on the patient
Name of the consultant and provider number (for Medicare clinics)
Investigation reports related to the referral

Urgent and after-hours support

Referrals are triaged based on priority. In an emergency, patients can go to the Emergency & Trauma Service at any time.

For advice, urgent referrals and out of hours support, call The RMH Switchboard on (03) 9342 7000 to page our registrar on call.

View Dept of Health guidelines

HealthPathways Melbourne provides guidance on best practice assessment and management of common medical conditions, including when and where to refer patients.

Parkville Connect is a secure web-based portal providing GPs, specialists and other health professionals with information in the Parkville electronic medical record (EMR).

Refugee Health Fellows

The Refugee Health Fellows program exists to assist health care providers, and fellows are available by telephone. Fellows can offer assistance with diagnosis and management, and can provide information on referral pathways for refugee and asylum seeker clients.

The Department of Health in Victoria has funded the fellow positions to provide support and advice to Victoria’s refugee health community to assist with clinical care, education and triaging. There are two paediatric fellows based at the Royal Children’s Hospital, two adult health fellows at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and a refugee health fellow at Monash Health.

What to bring

Every time you come

Every time you come in for a test, day procedure, surgery or treatment, you should bring:

Medicare card
Health Care card (if you have one)
Concession card (if you have one)
Adverse drug alert card (if you have one)
Medications you are currently taking, including any that you have bought without a prescription
X-ray films, scans, ultrasounds or any other test results you have which are related to your procedure
Private health insurance card (if you want to use it)
Aids (glasses, hearing aid, walking frame)