Visitors are permitted at Austin Health sites with some restrictions. Find out more about our visitor restrictions.
If you are worried about your condition or feeling worse after leaving the hospital, you can contact your GP (during business hours). If it is an emergency, please call 000 or visit the Emergency Department. This document should not replace the advice of your relevant health care professional.
Please check your GP details are correctly recorded in our system before you leave. This helps to ensure that important medical information is sent to your GP in a timely manner. Please speak with the ward receptionist if you are unsure.
During your hospital stay, you may be provided with written information about your ongoing care needs. This may include important information such as your:
Sometimes, this information is not always ready when you are leaving the hospital.
This may be because the appointment details have not yet been confirmed, or the doctor might not have finished writing your discharge summary to send to your GP.
Once you are back home, there are a few different ways to get this information. We have provided further details below on how to access this information if you did not receive it.
Ideally you will be provided with a copy of your medical discharge summary when you leave hospital. If it is not available, please see the information about how you can get a copy below.
If you need to attend a follow up appointment with a doctor, we will try to arrange your appointment before you leave the hospital. If we can't, we'll send you a letter with further details about how to organise your appointment.
If the doctor refers you to see a different group of medical specialists, there might be a wait before you can get an appointment. The waiting time depends on how urgent your situation is and how many other people are also waiting to see those doctors.
If you have any questions about your follow-up appointments or you have not received an appointment letter, you can contact Specialist Clinics.
If you have been prescribed any medicine by your doctor, you may receive a Patient Friendly Medicines List when you leave the hospital. This list will show what medicines you are currently taking and any changes that have been made to your medicines during your hospital stay.
This could include new medicines, changes to your medicines, or medicines that you have stopped taking.
You may be given written information brochures by the staff looking after you, such as information about your diet or equipment you need to take home. These brochures may provide important information about your condition or your care needs.
If you have any questions about the information included in these brochures, please contact the staff member or department via the phone number listed on the back page of the brochure.
We welcome your feedback about your experience and the care you received while you were in hospital. There are lots of different ways to provide this feedback.
You can also download the information from this page as a fact sheet.
For further information contact:
Phone: 03 9496 5000