Last month, NQPHN hosted the final Cancer Screening CQI program events for 2021 in Mackay and Townsville. Mackay’s event welcomed 28 healthcare professionals, who learnt about skin cancer checks from Specialist Dermatologist Dr Jim Muir. Dr Muir’s presentation highlighted the benefits of skin cancer checks, identifying an ‘acute rash’, and the benefits of same day procedures in skin disease. Townsville’s event welcomed Specialist Dermatologist Dr Robert Miller, who presented to the 24 attending healthcare professionals. Dr Miller’s key points focused on the importance of melanoma screening, risk factors for melanoma, and diagnostic methods for melanoma screening. Cancer Council Queensland’s Cancer Support Coordinator Anthea Skinner presented at both events, discussing the services and supports available to healthcare professionals and patients. NQPHN will host an event in Cairns in early 2022.

Doing so allows PenCAT to automatically recognise HL7 formatted items and requires no further action.

Your practice can also access National Bowel Screening Program results online with Sonic Dx or Fetch. To do so, please ensure all your doctors are setup to access results for patients who have nominated them as their general practitioner (GP). Also, encourage patients to list you as their preferred GP when having services provided through the cancer screening program.

If a GP is not setup and would like to receive results in the HL7 format, please contact Doctor IT Services on 1800 100 769 or sonicdx@snp.com.au

In May 2021, the Medical Services Advisory Committee recommended to government that self-collection be expanded to be offered as a choice to all people eligible for cervical screening: http://www.msac.gov.au/internet/msac/publishing.nsf/Content/1664-public.

A government decision on this recommendation is awaited, but the change could potentially be introduced sometime in 2022. At present, the self-collection pathway is available to under and never screened people aged 30 and over who meet strict eligibility criteria with the test being offered in a consultation by a cervical screening provider. 

We recognise that the implementation of the current self-collection cervical screening pathway has not come without its challenges, and that primary care and the Primary Health Networks are pivotal in the delivery of self-collection. The University of Melbourne (led by A/Prof Julia Brotherton and Dr Claire Nightingale), has been commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Health to conduct a consultation and develop an implementation plan to guide the potential roll out of this proposed policy change.

Primary care providers are encourage to participate in the short online survey: https://melbourneuni.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1TFtMJwsBHlbAzA 

Participants of the survey have the choice to go into the draw to win one of two $200 Red Balloon Gift Vouchers. 

What you need to know

• A pilot of new correspondence is being undertaken which aims to improve participation by under screened cohorts and promote self-collection.
• This correspondence will be distributed to around 400,000 cervical screening participants throughout May – July 2021.
• There will be an increased demand on cervical screening tests during this period (July to October 2021), including self-collect vaginal swabs.

Background

The Department will test newly designed correspondence against its current correspondence, to identify the best way to encourage participation in this group of Australians.

The Department, through the National Cancer Screening Register, will be disseminating correspondence to initial pilot cohorts during July to October 2021; which will be then evaluated to inform a broader roll-out in early 2022. An NCSP letter and information sheet will be sent to people identified as very under-screened or never-screened for the National Cervical Screening Program

The Department will be using this pilot as an opportunity to actively promote self-collection through the designed correspondence, as all participants in this cohort will be eligible.

The Department has advised that there may be impacts for practices in terms of activity within the National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP) which may result in a small increase in appointments booked for cervical screening and an increase in requests for self-collected HPV tests, from July to October 2021.

Want to know more

Please send any queries regarding the pilot to NCSPCommittees@health.gov.au