GPs are the linchpin to cervical screening recruitment.
Cervical cancer rates are lower but participation in HPV screening needs a boost.
This week on The Tea Room, Professor Annabelle Farnsworth spills the tea on how the new national cervical screening program is going, five years on.
Professor Farnsworth said the new program was seeing cancer rates starting to drop, but that there were challenges getting more people to participate.
“One of the major issues that the whole new program faces, is recruiting women, and people with cervices, into the program. General practice has always been a very central part of cervical screening because the general practitioner can individualise conversations with each person,” she said.
Professor Farnsworth said that in the old program, general practices often had reminder systems that they ran themselves to encourage patients to come back for their regular check-ups.
“Women’s health check-ups were part of that landscape as well. In the new program, some of those things may have fallen by the wayside,” she said.
Professor Farnsworth also said varying rates of cervical cancer among different populations was a “big problem”. She said First Nations people were dying from cervical cancer at higher rates than other Australians, as were people in rural areas who didn’t have equal access to further investigation and treatment services.
This episode also looks at eligibility and MBS exceptions, self-test advantages and the overwhelming number of colposcopy referrals. Professor Farnsworth nudges GPs to check out the online participant portal that GPs and practice managers can access to check their patient’s status.
You can listen and subscribe to the show by searching for “The Tea Room Medical Republic” in your favourite podcast player.
