NNSWLHD commenced using eReferrals in June 2020 as a 12-month trial in the Lismore Outpatient Department, Lismore Pain Clinic and 6 Community and Allied Health Services. NNSWLHD decided to operationalise eReferrals into Business-As-Usual in late 2023. 

NNSWLHD has now rolled out eReferrals to most outpatient services including Cancer Care, medical speciality outpatient clinics including paediatric outpatients, midwifery and maternity care services, community mental health and child and adolescent mental health and various nursing services. 

Additional services will continue to be added as resources and other programs allow. 

The most accurate list of eReferral-enabled services is available in HealthLink SmartForms, NNSWLHD eReferrals.

Accessing eReferrals

NNSWLHD eReferrals are provided by HealthLink, a Secure Message Broker. HealthLink is also used by the Commonwealth for My Aged Care referrals, Transport NSW and eReferrals across NSW, ACT, SA, Tasmania and Victoria. Referrers can access HealthLink SmartForms in their clinical information system if they are using one of Best Practice, Medical Director, Genie, Shexie, MedTech Evolution or ZedMed. Referrers without one of these systems who wish to use eReferrals can use a seure web portal. eReferrals is free for referrers to use. eReferrals also allows LHD clinics to electronically update referrers at key points of the referral handling process, for example, when the referral is being triaged, or the patient appointment is made. Messages are sent to referrers securely.

Privacy, Security and Assurance

The LHD has conducted a Privacy Impact Assessment and has passed eHealth NSW's Privacy, Security and Assurance Framework (PSAF) process to ensure patient information is secured and protected via appropriate data and access control.

Help Pages

GPs and other referrers, or their representatives like Practice Managers, can get help here: referrer help.