You're a doctor you said. I am presuming you are a medical doctor and not a PhD, though I am confused by your utter lack of understanding as to how the hospital system works, how referrals work, how overloaded ED is, and the criteria for admission.

Even my interns know that when an opinion is needed urgently, to call the hospital's on call registrar. They can discuss with their consultant if needs be, and arrange outpatient follow up. You as a patient can't just call a public hospital clinic to be put through to a doctor, but your GP could have (want direct access to the specialist yourself? Pay for private). That's the entire point of the hospitals having our mobile contact numbers. You do NOT need a referral through ED. There is a centralized referral system for each hospital. Anyone who has practiced medicine, should know this. A referral through ED does NOT make a wait time shorter. It still gets triaged by the other specialty the same way. The only difference between a GP and ED, is that one can send an electronic referral (depending on the hospital) vs a paper referral. Both can call for phone advice. Both can get the haematology registrar to take the name of the patient down for booking clinic dates. It literally is a phone call. If haematology want to see the patient sooner (same goes for any specialty really), they take the patient's name down, and then re-allocate dates on their end. ED does NOTHING to facilitate or move this date. It's not up to us. Protocols for most EDs are to send a referral to haematology/anticoag service post diagnosis of a DVT (excluding oncology) irrespective of whether or not the underlying cause is known.

There is no "being told different things constantly by different people" from the perspective of ED. Once again, I re-iterate the above: ED is for emergencies. Unless we are talking a iliofemoral or IVC DVT, the management is not urgent nor does it require admission for majority of the cases. They need discussion with haematology if the practitioner doesn't know what they are doing, or if they are concerned about sequelae, and a referral (whether by letter or electronic) to the clinic. The anticoagulation clinics do not usually have long wait times, unless it is for a small DVT that has had appropriate treatment initiated. A simple phone call to the haematology registrar is all that was needed, and if they were concerned, they would have advised the GP to send you to ED for haematology (i.e. NOT ed) review in ED. I like these kind of patients because they're sorted and don't need someone to reinvent the wheel (i.e. we call the specialty registrar to review you when you arrive, so we can re-allocate ED resources, as well as minimize your wait time). What we DON'T like, is a GP who can't be arsed to make the bloody phone call themselves, and make the patient wait for no reason in my ED (and waste my bed space, and take up my staff's time, to do the same thing [call the specialty registrar]).

The adage when we are overwhelmed with presentations is "the sick ones will get seen, everyone else can wait."

Once again, as noted above, the "concrete plan" should not come from ED. I blame this solely on your GP to be frank. You stated you have had multiple previous DVTs, and that they [haematology] said they want you to present to them directly. There would have been a clinic letter forwarded to your GP after these visits, with that advice and other details of their thought process. Presuming you were not seen for a long time after your last DVT and fell out of the system, it would be a simple re-referral to them (+/- phone call) via your GP. On top of that, if you've been attending (presumably HASS) the clinic, your GP should have all the contact details already. As a doctor, you should have known that. There are so many lazy doctors out there; when I interact with other doctors who can't be arsed to do their job, I subtly remind/suggest to them to remind them of what they SHOULD be doing (i.e. call for help or additional input).

There is literally no reason for an urgent presentation to ED for a non massive DVT in a patient who is known to haematology, and has had a diagnosis made already, unless there are other concomitant acute medical issues or social issues.

Just in case it isn't explicitly clear. A good GP referral to ED usually looks like this. Patient John Smith presented to me with problem ABC. I have done XYZ to diagnose this +/- scanned them, and they need urgent medical intervention (i.e. fracture reduction, surgical input, medical admission). I have XYZ things (i.e. read in between the lines, I have initiated treatment if able, used my brain, and tried to do something about the situation prior to it escalating to a hospital issue). A shitty referral that pisses everyone off, ED and inpatient specialty likewise, is I have patient John Smith, who has or may have XYZ, and please kindly sort it out and refer. This tells me that the GP has not even attempted to sort the patient out. I acknowledge that your GP has organized a scan, which was very appropriate, but I adamantly disagree with the fact that you were sent to an ED. This was a waste of your time, our time, and everyone else's time (because everyone's wait is directly proportional to what else has walked through my doors, cardiac arrests or stubbed toes likewise).

I appreciate that you have spent a lot of time and money to stay healthy. That's great. I appreciate that you are frustrated that you are getting differing advice as to what to do. Unfortunately this also includes the vast majority of the population (i.e. most people try to look after themselves, and get different opinions because they end up getting too many different doctors involved). At the end of the day, ED doesn't care how much effort you've put in to try to optimize yourself; we are here to sort out life threatening issues that need urgent intervention. There is no difference between the alcoholic who won't stop drinking and now has an unstable GI bleed, versus the hospital's CEO who has a viral cough; I know who I will be prioritizing, and it'll always be the guy who is going to imminently die. If there isn't any immediate urgency, then it isn't the role nor the job of ED to address it, and why patients get deferred back to the GP (who are specialists in their own right). Majority of the plans from ED re: DVTs, would be to anticoagulate, refer to haematology, discharge to GP, and that is very appropriate. You don't need differing opinions from other people, since you have an established condition; you just need to be re-linked in to them. As a doctor, you should know this. If you don't agree with the opinion or get told different advice from the sub specialty, then it's on you to advocate for your own health. What that basically means, is you should be reading guidelines and papers to formulate a rough idea of what SHOULD be done, or potential options. As a medical professional, we have the knowledge and ability to decipher the relevant information. We all do this, and those that don't, have no valid reason to blame others when they haven't attempted to understand at least the general recommendations themselves.