Resources Referral Guidelines (public patients) Endocrinology - Young Adult Endocrine Clinic (16-25 years)

Young Adult Endocrine Clinic - public patients

For patients transitioning from paediatric to young adult care.

Clinical Lead - Dr Liza Phillips

Purpose

The Mater Young Adult Endocrine Clinics are for young people aged between 16 and 25 years of age. The purpose of the clinics is to support young people to move from paediatric care to the Mater Young Adult Health Centre Brisbane. The centre offers a number of clinical services and programs that have been developed with young people in mind.

Scope of Service

The Mater Young Adult Endocrine Service will provide care to patients with the following conditions:

• Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
• Genetic Endocrine conditions
• Klinefelter Syndrome
• Bone, Parathyroid and Calcium disorders
• Pituitary disorders
• Polycystic ovarian syndrome and other menstrual disorders
• Thyroid disorders
• Turner Syndrome*

*Patients with Turner Syndrome will be seen in a specialised clinic

Please note young people with diabetes and other endocrine conditions will be seen in one of our other clinics. The referral process remains the same.

If you would like your patient to access the Mater Young Adult Endocrine service please provide the following information set out in our Referral Criteria.

How to send a referral

Referral Criteria

Please include all of the General Referral Information and:

• relevant hormone levels
• relevant investigations including imaging studies
• For pituitary disorders (early morning 0700-0900 hours sample): prolactin, LH, FSH, oestradiol or testosterone, TSH, Free T4, cortisol, ACTH, growth hormone, IGF1, ELFT, FBE
• Thyroid disorders: TSH, T4 and thyroid antibodies

Patients who are referred to the clinic are triaged according to the diabetes and endocrine referral guidelines.

Preparation for transition to an adult health care provider

There are important principles in the effective transition of young people from paediatric to adult care. We recognise these and take them into consideration when transitioning young people:

• Our service is one of many available to your patient. All appropriate options for adult endocrine care should be discussed and offered to the young person and family. They should be encouranged to choose the adult endocrine care provider who best needs their needs (this may include geographical location, close to home, work or university, clinic hours, costs, staff available etc).
• Most young people who will arrive at our service will have begun the transition process many years prior to being transferred to our care. When the young person is transtitioned into the Mater Young Adult Endocrine service we will continue to work with the young person and their family/carer.
• We recognise that not all components of the transition process may be complete at the time of transfer and we will work with you to identify and prioritise the elements of transition. For example, we will follow up on any education which will need to be addressed following transfer.
• Please consider delaying the transfer of care if the patient is currently experiencing crisis.
• To assist in referring your patient please provide a comprehensive referral form with current contact details such as phone number, address and email, next of kin and GP. You may also complete an Integrated Transition Summary (Queensland Health only) document.

Bulk Billed Clinics

Mater Young Adult Services offers patients the opportunity to attend bulk billed clinics. To provide your patient with the opportunity to attend a bulk billed specialist clinic, please provide a named referral to one of our specialists listed above.

Contact Us

If you would like to discuss a referral, including clinical criteria, or update the status of a current patient please contact our priority GP phone line on 07 3163 2200 

Current Waiting Time for Appointments

We provide up to date data on how long patients are waiting for their first appointment by specialty here

Referral Guideline Development

These Mater Referral Guidelines align with standardised best practice tools for referral to publicly funded specialist outpatient services developed in Queensland through the Clinical Prioritisation Criteria project. 

Content Last Reviewed: 13 December 2023