Putting it into practice: Cancer screening

  27 May 2020  NWMPHN   |   Third party content – view disclaimer

By the Primary Health Care Improvement Team, North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network. 

People with breast, cervical and bowel cancers detected through national cancer screening programs have better cancer survival outcomes than those diagnosed who had never been screened.

Some figures:

  • 6 out of 10 eligible people are not participating in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.
  • 4 out of 10 eligible women are overdue for a screening mammogram.
  • 4 out of 10 eligible women are overdue for cervical screening.
  • People from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and culturally and linguistically diverse, backgrounds are less likely to participate in bowel, breast and cervical screening.

People are more likely to attend cancer screening when they are reminded to do so by their primary care provider.

  • General practice can have an influence on cancer screening by reinforcing screening invitations and reminders sent from screening registries
  • Identify patients who are over-due for screening or who have never screened and engage with these patients about the importance of cancer screening

CAT4 resources

CAT4 have developed a number of resources that can assist you to implement cancer screening quality improvement activities in your practice.

Stand up to Cancer Toolkit: How to use CAT Plus to better manage cancer 

The Cancer Booklet demonstrates to practices how to better manager cancer using their CAT Plus software and improve the data quality of patient records.

Topics covered include:

  • Prevention and early detection of cancer
  • Detection of under-screened or never screened patients
  • Improving your practice data quality clinical decision support for cancer screening

General practitioners can download an electronic copy from the Pen CS website.

Recipes to help you to identify your patients using CAT4 Cat4 logo

These recipes can be used in conjunction with cancer screening quality improvement tools and resources, including cancer screening reminder templates and workflows.

Establish and monitor cancer screening participation rates:

Invitation recipes – identify patients who will soon become eligible for screening:

Reminder recipes – identify patients who have been screened and who are due to return to screening:

Never screened/Overdue recipes – identify patients who are overdue for screening or who have never screened:

Optional steps to add Topbar prompts or recall:

Optional step to combine the above searches with MBS items such as GPMP and/or TCA eligibility

NWMPHN Cancer Screening Toolkit 

The North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network Cancer Screening Toolkit has been developed for general practices wishing to increase the uptake of cancer screening programs within their practice. The toolkit includes quality improvement activities that are designed to enhance knowledge and strengthen systems to increase cancer screening.

Topics covered:

  • Data management – for example: setting baselines and goals
  • Recalls and reminders
  • Team-care approach to cancer screening
  • Strategies and enablers to improve screening rates

The tool kit is available as a single file or as individual sections.

Disclaimer: This article was provided by NWMPHN. While every effort has been made to ensure the information is accurate, North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network does not warrant or represent the accuracy, currency and completeness of any information or material included within.