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Paediatric Medicine (General Paediatrics) · Refer Your Patient
Chronic and recurrent abdominal pain
Copied from the official Gold Coast Health condition page (27 Aug 2026). Hospital triage assigns the official category. Live source: Refer Your Patient — Chronic and recurrent abdominal pain.
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Cat 1 · 30 days
appointment within 30 calendar days. - Recurrent waking from sleep with abdominal pain
- Suspicion of serious gastrointestinal disease: persistent vomiting, weight loss or failure to thrive, dysphagia
- Extra-intestinal symptoms e.g. fever, rash, mouth ulcers, joint pain
- Blood or mucus in the stool
- Presence of anaemia or abnormalities of liver function tests
- Missing 50% or more of school or other history to suggest significant burden of symptomatology
- Children under 6 years with symptoms for more than 1 month at the time of referral
- A child:
- at risk of entering the chil protection system (0-18 years of age)
- currently in out of home care (OOHC) (0-18 years of age), or
- Adolescents transitionto adult healthcare following an out of home care experience (15-25 years of age) where they have previously been on a waiting list for this probelm and were removed without receiving a service
Cat 2 · 90 days
appointment within 90 calendar days. - Most other referrals for chronic and recurrent abdominal pain
Cat 3 · 365 days
appointment within 365 calendar days. - No category 3 criteria
Essential referral information
Referral will be returned without this. If a mandatory test cannot be obtained, say so in the referral.
- Current height and weight and include date of measurement
- History of pain:
- how long has the child been experiencing recurrent abdominal pain?
- location of the abdominal pain
- Report presence or absence of concerning features
- Recurrent waking from sleep with pain.
- Non midline pain
- Weight loss
- Fevers
- Blood or mucus mixed in stool
- Waking at night to stool
- Clubbing
- Confirmation of out of home care (OOHC) (where appropriate)
Out of scope / wrong door
The following conditions are out of scope for this service:
- Patients 16 years and over should be referred to the appropriate Adult Outpatient service closest to home.
- Services that should be initially provided by primary care or community based allied health care for children, including well infant care and advice, parenting and behaviour management for young children, developmental services for children with mild developmental delay
- Educational assessment of school-age children
- Gold Coast University Hospital does not offer the following Paediatric specialty services.
- Referrals will be redirected to General Paediatrics for initial assessment, management and consideration of referral for tertiary care at Queensland Children’s Hospital:
- Immunology
- Renal Paediatrics
- Gastroenterology
- Genetics (RBWH)
Parent service: Paediatric Medicine (General Paediatrics)
Send outpatient referrals to
- Smart Referrals preferred (Best Practice or Medical Director)
- Medical Objects GQ42150009Z (lookup qh → QHEALTH, GOLD COAST HEALTH OUTPATIENT)
- HealthLink EDI Qldgchsd
- Fax (07) 5687 4497 — Booking and Referral Centre
- Post: Booking and Referral Centre, Gold Coast University Hospital, 1 Hospital Boulevard, Southport QLD 4215
- Clinic enquiries 1300 559 083
How to refer — full order
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