You have an upper limb injury in front of you, from the fingertips to the shoulder, and a question that can't wait for a letter. Send a photo and the question. A specialist surgeon picks it up and answers you directly.
OnHand is for privately insured and WorkCover patients. A WorkCover claim number may still be pending. Patients without private cover or a work injury should go through the usual public referral pathway.
Life- or limb-threatening? Phone 000 or your on-call pathway. OnHand is for advice between clinicians, not emergencies, and is watched 6am–10pm. Referrals sent overnight are answered from 6am.
OnHand is a shared referral line for urgent hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder problems in Adelaide, run by the surgeons of the Eastwood Upper Limb Institute. It brings together two practices that already work in the same building — GRIP Hand, Wrist & Reconstructive Surgery and the Adelaide Shoulder & Upper Limb Clinic — so that a referrer doesn't have to guess who is free, who is on leave, or whose sub-specialty fits.
The referral alerts the OnHand surgeons and you get an immediate reply — within 30 minutes, between 6am and 10pm — with the plan. If the answer is reassurance, you get reassurance. If it needs a clinic appointment or theatre, that starts moving straight away.
Open the referral page on your phone. Add up to three photos — the injury, an X-ray, whatever shows the problem — the patient's initials, and your question.
It reaches the whole group at once rather than sitting in one person's inbox, so the reply never waits on one person being at their desk.
Within 30 minutes during watched hours. The reply comes back to your mobile by secure link, with a clear disposition: advice only, bring them to clinic, or this needs theatre.
Photos are encrypted, stored in Australia, and visible only to the Institute's surgeons. Every view, claim and reply is recorded against the case.
Orthopaedic and plastic surgical training, covering the hand and wrist through to the elbow and shoulder, appointed across the Royal Adelaide, Women's and Children's, Flinders and Eastwood Private.
