Welcome to the Cancer Screening Community of Practice

Did you know that people who are reminded by their GP to attend cancer screening are more likely to screen?

The National Bowel, Breast and Cervical Screening Programs provide an opportunity for General Practices to play a key role in the early detection and management of cancers.

The Primary Health Network is committed to working alongside General Practices to improve cancer screening participation rates and reduce the risk of cancers within targeted population groups.

Specifically, the Primary Care Improvement Team can support your General Practice improve cancer screening participation rates through:

- anaylising and interpreting cancer screening data through CAT4 and PHN Dashboard Reports,

- identifying patients who are overdue and or never screened,

- accessing and maximising the functions of the National Cancer Screening Register,

- developing robust recall and reminder workflow systems and

- implementing effective patient engagement strategies.

If this is something that you and your practice are interested in, please speak with your Primary Care Improvement Officer.

Has your General Practice received your Cancer Screening Promotion Pack?

The Department of Health have developed and are mailing out to all General Practice a Cancer Screening Promotion Pack which includes numerous resources to assist General Practices improve and encourage the uptake of cancer screening. These resources include:

- posters for each of the three programs to display in your waiting room (saved in the Documents section)

- demonstration sample kits of the bowel cancer screening home test kits and the cervical screening self-collection swabs including instructions on how to use these kits.

If your General Practices has not received a pack by the end of August 2022, please email your practice details to: epe@health.gov.au

A Cancer Screening Education Package has been developed to support your General Practice in your role promoting and managing patients through the bowel, breast and or cervical screening program. This package is free to access and accredited under RACGP and ACRRM.

For further information to support your patients participate in cancer screening, please visit: Guidance for patient screening | Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care

Cancer Council Australia, in partnership with the Australian Government, has launched the Get2it National Bowel Cancer Screening Campaign to encourage men and women aged 50 to 74 to participate in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.

Cancer Council has produced health professional information page inclusive of supportive resources to assist General Practices identify potential barriers and reluctancy to patients participating in routine bowel screening.

Are your patients up to date with their bowel screening? Is this an area your practice would like to focus on?

We are able to support you and your General Practice improve your bowel cancer screening participation rates through:

• Identifying patients due and overdue for bowel screening
• Access and maximise the functions of the National Cancer Screening Register
• Develop robust recall and reminder workflow and systems
• Implement effective patient engagement strategies

Dept. of Health have developed a suite of resources to support the uptake of self-collection cervical screening.

The following resources have been updated:

- A guide to understanding your cervical screening test results (brochure)

- How to collect your own vaginal sample for a Cervical Screening Test (visual guide)

- How to collect your own sample (visual guide)

- What happens when my healthcare provider collects my sample (visual guide)

- Cervical cancer is preventable (poster)

- Cervical screening explained (video)

To order these resources please email: health@nationalmailing.com.au quoting the resources order ID which is noted against each individual resource.

From Friday 1 July 2022, the National Cervical Screening Program will expand Cervical Screening Test options, offering self-collection as a choice to all people participating in cervical screening. All people with a cervix aged 25 – 74 years will have the choice to screen using either self-collected vaginal sample or a clinician collected sample from the cervix, access through a healthcare provider in both cases. These changes mean that you may start to see an increase in the volume of requests from patients to use self-collection as an option for their Cervical Screening Test.

How can you support cervical screening self-collection in your General Practice?

• Healthcare providers continue to play a central and critical role in the NCSP, in assessing patient risk and using clinical judgement to recommend testing and follow-up.
• Healthcare providers will still need to offer a consultation for cervical screening whether it be a self-collected vaginal sample or clinician-collected cervical sample. Healthcare providers are best placed to talk with patients about cervical screening and determine the best screening option.
• Healthcare providers will need to explain to patients how to collect a self-collected sample from the vagina and provide the correct swabs for collection of the sample.
• Healthcare providers must provide patients with clear information about the likelihood that HPV may be detected and, if so, what follow-up will be required.
• Where self-collection is chosen, patients attending an in-person consultation should be encouraged to collect their sample while still at the clinic, as sample collection is considered more likely in this context. However, with the aim to maximise participation in cervical screening, collection of the sample can occur in any setting that the healthcare provider ordering the test believes is appropriate, including in the context of a telehealth consultation.
• Wherever a patient takes their sample, the healthcare provider remains responsible for sending the sample to the pathology laboratory for processing and for informing patients of results and any follow-up required.

What can you do to get ready?

• Contact your local pathology laboratory to confirm the correct swab type for self-collected samples and any other handling/processing considerations.
• Gain access to the National Cancer Screening Register via PRODA or your clinical software to view and update your patients screening history. The PHN has created a NCSR User Access Guide to assist you and your practice the Register which is available in the PHN Resource section.
• Review the National Cervical Screening Guidelines
• Attend the upcoming ‘Cervical Screening in General Practice education session hosted by RACGP (details below).

JULY 2022: From 1 July 2022 the National Cervical Screening Program will expand to offer self-collection as a choice to all people participating in cervical screening. Further information is available via: https://www.cancer.org.au/cervicalscreening/i-am-over-25/do-i-need-the-test/self-collection-and-the-cervical-screening-test

May 2022: BreastScreen NSW services are open. Some clinics may continue to be affected by the impact of COVID-19 on staffing. BreastScreen NSW are prioritising online bookings for women aged 50-74 only.

August 2021: The National Cancer Screening Register introduced the Participant Portal accessible via MyGov account; allowing participants of the National Cervical and or Bowel Cancer Screening Programs to manage their participation in routine screening. Further information can be found at : https://www.ncsr.gov.au/content/ncsr/en/general-public/participant-portal.html

December 2021: National Cancer Screening Register is now integrated with Best Practice, Medical Director and Communicare. This integration allows you to:

• Accessing a patient’s bowel and cervical screening results and histories online, in real-time
• Submitting forms electronically
• Managing your patient’s participation
• Ordering a bowel test kit directly to a patient’s address.

July 2021: National Bowel Cancer Screening Program launches the National Indigenous Bowel Screening Pilot. This allows health professionals to give FOBT kits directly to their First Nation patients. For further information and how to engage in this initiative visit: https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/national-bowel-cancer-screening-program/indigenous/alternative-access#:~:text=Alternative%20access%20to%20kits%20means,National%20Bowel%20Cancer%20Screening%20Program.