2020 saw the complete age expansion of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) to include all Medicare registered people aged 50-74 years. 

Primary care providers play a key role in the success of NBCSP in reducing illness and death from bowel cancer through early detection of the disease. GPs ensure that program participants progress through the screening pathway with clinically appropriate advice, treatment, and care coordination and providing data on participants and their outcomes to the National Cancer Screening Register.

Additionally, you can encourage people to participate when they receive a screening test, assess people with a positive result, and refer them for further examination as clinically indicated. Strong evidence suggest that patients are more motivated to take part in a program if a primary care provider recommends participation.

The National Cancer Screening Register has launched a health care provider portal to help health professionals access and submit bowel screening data electronically. The portal can be used to:

• access your patients' bowel screening results and histories online
• prepare for patient appointments by checking their records
• submit forms and reports electronically
• update your patients' information
• order a bowel screening kit for a patient.

Read more about using the portal on the register’s website.

Several resources are available for general practice to learn more about the program and how to encourage participation.

For further information please visit www.ncsr.gov.au or call 1800 627 701.

All ePIP registered practices are required to upload SHSs for a minimum of 0.5% of the practice’s standardised whole patient equivalent (SWPE), as well as meet all other requirements outlined in the ePIP guidelines to be eligible for the ePIP payment.  

What is a shared health summary? 

According to the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) a SHS represents a patient’s health status at a point in time and includes known information in four key areas, which includes: 

• the patient’s medical conditions 
• medicines 
• allergies/adverse reactions  
• immunisations.

The aim of a SHS is to provide key pieces of information about an individuals health status, facilitating care across various healthcare domains.  

Who can create an upload a shared health summary? 

A SHS is created and uploaded by the patients nominated healthcare provider through a practice’s conformant clinical information system (e.g., Best Practice, MedicalDirector, Genie). A nominated healthcare provider may include: 

• a registered Medical Practitioner 
• a registered nurse (Div 1) 
• an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioner.

It is important to note that a healthcare provider who is not the patient’s usual provider should instead upload an event summary which captures key health information about significant healthcare events that are relevant to the ongoing care of an individual. An example of when an event summary may be used includes: 

• patient visiting an after-hours medical service
• holidaying patients
• patients receiving an immunisation or flu vaccine.  

When to upload a shared health summary? 

A SHS should be created in consultation with the patient and may be uploaded in the following circumstances: 

• when completing a patient health assessment (e.g., GP Management Plan, 75+ Assessment, child health check) 
• significant changes to a patient’s health status in any of the four key areas. For example: 
• when a new medication is prescribed or dosage changes
• following an immunisation
• when a new medical condition is diagnosed.  

To support general practitioners and practices to meet their SHS upload requirements, NQPHN have created a printable computer monitor calendar where practice managers can write SHS quarterly targets on the calendar as a reminder. These calendars also provide prompts for when to upload SHSs to My Health Record. 

To download these printable calendars for your practice, click here and navigate to the 'General practice' section.

Anyone can get liver disease – in fact 1 in 5 Australians have fatty liver disease and most people don’t know they have it. Left untreated, liver disease can lead to permanent liver damage such as cirrhosis or liver cancer.

Liver cancer is the fastest-growing cause of cancer death in Australia and has a low five-year survival rate of just 16 percent. The good news is most liver cancer is preventable.  

Lifestyle changes such as eating a well-balanced diet, exercising regularly, limiting alcohol intake and getting a hepatitis test can reduce the risk.

For patients with viral hepatitis, there are treatments that can cure or suppress the disease before it leads to the more serious problems caused by liver inflammation. Antiviral therapies can cure hepatitis C in 95 per cent of patients, and long-term treatment of hepatitis B can suppress the virus and reduce liver inflammation. 

Join Hepatitis Queensland's urgent mission this World Hepatitis Day. Help Queenslanders ‘Get Smart’ about liver health:

• Share Hepatitis Queensland's new liver health animation and download their campaign resources at www.liversmart.com.au  
• Promote liver health checks in your medical practice www.youtube.com/watch?v=XECzmS9bN3Y 

Get Smart About Your Liver – www.liversmart.com.au