The Steve Biko Academic Hospital (formally Pretoria Academic Hospital) is a purely tertiary healthcare institution, rendering specialized and highly specialized services to medically referred patients. It is a referral hospital in that patients are referred to the institution by their local clinics.

The Steve Biko Academic Hospital is a academic hospital. No walk-in patients will be seen (Poli-clinic patient services). All patients need to be referred via a:

• Medical practitioner
• Clinic
• Hospital within the referral system. The referral doctor needs to phone himself and make an appointment with the doctor at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital, at the specific clinic.

Treatment at one specialty does not allow admission to other specialties without separate referral letters and separate appointments arranged with the specific specialists.