Why refer to Southwest Orthopaedics?

You have choices about where to refer your patients.  We hope that you will chose our locally provided services, supporting our local St John of God private hospital as well as the public system.  We strive to use the best available evidence to drive our clinical care of patients to be the best it can be, but we are also open to the latest proven innovations.


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Referrals can be faxed or emailed.  All referrals are reviewed to allow prioritisation before an appointment is made.
Office Hours 0800-1700 Weekdays
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Phone 0424 998776                         Fax 03 4505 2444                                email  mailto:help@southwestortho.com.au

Responsive & Interactive

 We use Dragon Dictate software to produce clinic letters on the day, and aim to get them to GPs as soon as the postal service will allow.  We hope to incorporate secure email services as they become available - let us know if you would like to use such a service.

Local Services

As a GP, you made a decision and a choice to live and work in the South West.  So did we.  We really want to work together with you to provide local services that are so good that patients don't need to or want to leave the region for orthopaedic care.  SO if these local services are not what you want them to be, let us know how we can improve them!

Available to you

We encourage GPs to call, or email.  Our clinic staff are instructed to put GP calls through when possible and to take a message otherwise - if you take the trouble to call us, we will do what we can to get back to you.
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Transparent Costs

It is really hard for patients to understand the costs of private healthcare.  We make it a point to discuss financial consent with the same attention to details as we do with medical consent.  So your patients will know what it will cost them when they have their consultation, not later.  Our out of pocket costs are considerably lower than the AMA rates.

St John of God Hospital
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The excellent facilities at SJOG mean that patients can have top quality rehabilitation after surgery

Hydrotherapy Pool
Reception
Rehab Gym

"what is the best hip replacement for my patient?"
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Innovation in healthcare is vital to progress, but many new implants are introduced to the market with minimal evidence of long term benefit.  We believe that in our regional setting it is important to use proven techniques and prostheses and to provide holistic care that best supports the patient's long-term aspirations. 

The Exeter hip replacement is consistently among the best performing hip prostheses in joint registries around the world.  It is tried and proven, not experimental, and gives reliable and durable results when placed through standard surgical approaches.
The NexGen knee has similarly good performance in international joint registries.  Accurate placement and good management of the soft tissue envelope balancing remain crucial to good outcomes.
Although artificial ligaments come and go, a biological graft, such as hamstring tendons, to replace the ACL remains the best long-term option, particularly for recreational athletes.  Good quality rehabilitation, where there is coordination between surgeon and physiotherapist, is as important as good surgical graft placement