Cleft lip and palate, The Children's Hospital at Westmead

A medical referral is required for your child to attend the Cleft Palate and Craniofacial service. This referral can come from your family doctor (GP) or from a specialist such as a Paediatrician, ENT Surgeon etc.

Please phone the Cleft Palate Clinic Speech Pathologist on (02) 9845 2079, followed by a written referral from a medical officer faxed or forwarded to the Cleft Palate Clinic.  

As we will require your referral to be current, if you ask your GP to make the referral an “indefinite referral” then this will last until your child is 18 years of age, or until you are no longer under the care of that particular GP.

The Service welcomes copies of Speech Pathologists’ and Physiotherapists’ letters and reports for patients being referred to the Service, but we cannot accept a referral from Allied Health Professionals – we need a medical referral.

Please phone the Cleft Palate clinic secretary on (02) 7825 2079 or Clinical Nurse Consultant on (02) 7825 1118, preferably within the first 48 hours of birth, followed by a written referral from the medical officer faxed or forwarded to the Cleft Palate clinic.

Clinics assessment process

• All newborns with clefts of the lip or palate should be referred to the Cleft Palate Clinic as soon as possible following birth. 
• The referring hospital or doctor should phone the Cleft clinic secretary on (02) 7825 2079 and fax a written referral to (02) 7825 2078. 
• The Cleft Palate clinic secretary will notify the Cleft Lip and Palate Nurse Consultant immediately and if the infant is born within the Sydney Metropolitan Area, the Nurse Consultant will visit the newborn and family at the maternity hospital. 
• If the maternity hospital is outside the Sydney Metropolitan Area, the Cleft Lip and Palate Clinical Nurse Consultant will make telephone contact with the referring health professionals and the caregivers.

If pre-surgical management of the cleft is required, usually the use of a mouth plate, then an appointment will be arranged for the infant and caregivers to be seen by one of the Clinic's orthodontists. Sometimes this appointment occurs before the newborn's first Cleft Palate Clinic appointment.

Follow up process

The aim of the Cleft Palate Clinic is to assess the newborn with a cleft condition within the first two to four weeks following birth. You will be notified of your appointment time as soon as possible.

The Cleft Palate Team is multidisciplinary and undertakes the assessment and surgical management of children with cleft lip and/or palate and velopharyngeal incompetence. The frequency of follow-up appointments in the Cleft Clinic will depend upon your child's condition.

Follow-up appointments in the Cleft clinic will be arranged by the clinic's secretary and will be posted to your home.

Please ensure that you notify the Cleft clinic of any changes to your contact details.

When you send us your referral, please ensure you provide the information listed below.

If you have received a text message from one of our secretaries requesting further information, please call us on (02) 7825 2079 or email us to provide the following information:

• Child’s Full Name
• Child’s Date of Birth
• Child’s Address
• Child’s Medicare Number
• Parent | Carer's Full Name
• Preferred mobile number
• Preferred email address

This information will be stored in your child’s medical record and used to contact you or send you information.

Email: SCHN-CHW-CleftPalateClinic@health.nsw.gov.au

The clinic manages the assessment and management of children with cleft lip and/or palate

• When: Thursdays
• Where: Speech Pathology Department, Outpatients Street, Level 2

The VPI Clinic is a sub-clinic of the Cleft Palate Clinic and provides speech pathology assessments for patients with suspected velopharyngeal insufficiency.

Medical referrals are required for this Clinic. 

• When: Thursdays
• Where: Speech Pathology Department, Outpatients Street, Level 2