The Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) Hip and knee outpatient clinic is part of Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) Orthopaedic and Trauma Service, and provides inpatient and outpatient care for patients living in the CALHN area who suffer from hip and knee problems.
Services include:
- Outpatient clinic consultations for diagnosis and management of the following (but not limited to): - osteoarthritis, inflammatory arthritis, post-traumatic arthritis, developmental dysplasia of the hip/hip deformity, avascular necrosis, soft tissue injuries in the knee including cruciate ligament injury and meniscal tears
- complex revision arthroplasty and hip preservation surgery in young adults
- Post-operative reviews
- Virtual clinic for reviews from Country areas and nursing homes
- Inpatient consultation and admission
Services are also provided to patients referred from rural and remote areas within South Australia and the Northern Territory on referral from the Royal Darwin Hospital or Alice Springs Hospital. In addition, CALHN also receives referrals from other local health networks for complex hip and knee disorders, adolescent hip disorders and complex revision surgery and infected joint replacement.
Children are usually managed by paediatric specialists, with referral to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
For more information please view the Orthopaedic clinic - Hip and knee outpatient service in CALHN web page.
Appointment location at RAH
Outpatient Department, Level 3G.6.
Royal Adelaide Hospital
Port Road SA 5000
Clinic operation times
- RAH clinics operate Monday to Thursday for patients with various hip and knee orthopaedic conditions.
Orthopaedic podiatry works closely with the clinic specialists offering services across both sites. For more podiatry information please view the CALHN Podiatry outpatient services page.
RAH Consultants
| Head of Unit Prof Bogdan Solomon | Head of Unit Assoc Prof Mark Rickman |
| Mr Robert Baird | Mr Justin Alexander |
| Mr Sam Benveniste | Mr Ben Beamond |
| Assoc Prof Mellick Chehade | Mr Jakub Jagiello |
| Mr Richard Clarnette | Mr Domenic Leonello |
| Mr Robert Fassina | Mr James McLean |
| Prof Donald Howie | Mr Justin Munt |
| Mr Daniel Mandziak | Mr Anthony Nguyen |
| Mr Luke Mooney | Mr Mike Smith |
| Assoc Prof Pete Smitham | Mr Aman Sood |
| Mr Justin Webb |
Referring patients to RAH
To refer your patient, follow the outpatient service information, triage and referral guidelines, complete and fax a referral to us. For urgent referrals, also contact the Registrar to discuss the case.
To ensure appropriate and timely triage, include all demographic and clinical details as well as relevant investigation results.
If you are concerned about any delay of the appointment or if there is any deterioration in your patient’s condition, contact the Registrar on call on (08) 7074 0000 (RAH) or (08) 8222 6000 (TQEH).
To make a referral:
Fax: (08) 7074 6247
Telephone: 1300 153 853
Discharge guidelines and information
If the patient or GP is concerned about a post-operative patient and orthopaedic assessment is required earlier than planned, a phone call to the RAH orthopaedic outpatients department on 1300 153 853, will allow this to be discussed with one of the orthopaedic nurses. After hours, the on-call orthopaedic registrar should be contacted with the above numbers to discuss the patient.
If a Joint Replacement patient is experiencing any issues or has any questions or concerns regarding post-operative care of their joint replacement, the can call:
- RAH Joint Replacement Nursing Service via the switchboard on (08) 7074 0000 pager #1731 or pager #1942
Patients whose orthopaedic condition has stabilised or resolved and for whom no further appointment has been made will be formally discharged or integrated into a long term management plan. If assessment is required again, a new referral, explaining the reason should be faxed to us.
As only the GP referral is available to the specialist at the time of triage, simply requesting review without providing information about the problem is insufficient and will lead to significant delays in assessing the referral which will most likely be returned to you for more information.
Alternate care options / health information for low priority
Dependant on the type and severity of the hip and / or knee condition, there may be a lengthy wait for some patients to be seen in the orthopaedic outpatient clinics.
In most cases, the key to appropriate management is a detailed history and examination. Options for obtaining further information regarding various hip and knee conditions and to provide guidance for assessment, investigations and management are listed under the below pathways and resources.
Health Pathways
Health Pathways South Australia is an online portal designed to be used by general practice at the point of care to guide best practice assessment, management and referral of common clinical conditions.
Related resources
- Hip osteoarthritis (PDF116KB)
- Knee osteoarthritis (PDF 116KB)
- Soft tissue Injury of the knee (PDF 208KB)
(including cruciate ligaments, meniscal tears and collateral ligaments, cartilage damage).
- Issue with prosthesis in-situ (PDF 206KB) (including joint replacements, rods, plates, screws, pins)
- Young hip conditions (PDF 205KB) (Perthes disease, slipped capital femoral epiphysis, development dysplasia of the hip and femoroacetabular impingement)
- Hip bursitis (PDF 205KB) (Trochanteric)
- Bakers cyst (PDF 111KB)