South West Rocks

The first South West Rocks Learning Workshop, focused on breast cancer screening, took place on May 4. Participant input is captured below.

You can contact the population health team at any time with any questions or feedback on 02 6618 5400.

What systems, skills or knowledge does your practice want to develop to improve screening rates?

  1. Breast screen mammogram data list for past 2 years
  2. Age 50+ patient review
  1. Protected time
  2. Resources – BreastScreen pens, nail files etc; laminated shower card (that shows how to self check)
  3. Opt-out – set a function allowing women to opt-out but with a follow up date (every 2 years?) to check they want to remain opted out
  4. Staff education (nurse)
  5. Health literacy – specific, Tonic TV

Who are your under-screeners?

  1. Women with low socio-economic status
  2. Fit, healthy, busy women who don’t make time – health is not their priority
  3. Patients who don’t want to know unless they have a specific symptom
  1. Culturally and linguistically diverse women – especially women with Filipino heritage
  2. Women over 60
  3. Farm women

The second South West Rocks Learning Workshop, focusing on cervical cancer screening, took place on June 14. Participant input is captured below.

You can contact the population health team at any time with any questions or feedback on 02 6618 5400.

What’s been a challenge?

  1. Time
  2. Getting data from community health screening – results/time of pap
  3. Patients not attending
  1. Slow to start – staff away etc
  2. Delay in BreastScreen data

What’s worked well?

  1. Reviewing data/data cleansing
  2. Involving staff
  3. Phone call lists
  1. Making time available
  2. Having information available from BreastScreen

Who are your cervical underscreeners?

  1. Women with disabilities
  2. Women who are carers/busy
  1. Women with intellectual disabilities (estimate about 20 patients)
  2. Under 25’s
  3. Women who are post menopausal (60-70 years old)

Having had more time to review your data, would you change who you think your patients under-screened for breast cancer are?

No, we think it is the same as our first estimate.

Yes, we think it is:

  1. 60-70 years olds
  2. We still think farm women/busy working women are under-screened

What are are your three priorities for action once you get back to your practice?

  1. Get more information for patients (handouts)
  2. Develop a script for our staff to use when they are ringing women to remind them about screening – including developing answers to FAQs
  1. Develop a questionaire for women aged 18-70 re paps and mammograms for the month of July (so we are not assuming why women don’t screen)
  2. Address theh fact that we have a large number of under-screened women with intellectual disabilities (ideas include engaging with carers, using the ‘Being a healthy woman’ fact sheet)
  3. Develop our mammogram recall system

This website is no longer active but is available to browse as a resource.

Women’s Cancer Screening Collaborative (WCSC) 2017-2018

Through the delivery of structured, clinician-led general practice quality improvement and health literacy interventions, general practices worked towards increasing access to and equity of women’s cancer screening programs across the North Coast.

From January 2017 to July 2018, general practices improved clinical systems and data auditing processes to better identify and remind never or under-screened at-risk populations of women. Focus groups were also held with at-risk women to understand the environmental and individual barriers and motivators to screening. 

This WCSC website acted as an information repository for all WCSC developed content providing access to and sharing of quality improvement tools, change strategy resources and ideas.

WCSC evaluation and resources can be found on the North Coast Primary Health Network. 

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