HPV screening debrief: how it stacks up

The Tea Room

Cervical cancer rates are lower but participation in HVP 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 that the new program is seeing cancer rates starting to drop but that there are challenges getting more people to participate.

“One of the major issues that the whole new programme faces, is recruiting women, and people with cervices, into the programme. 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 programme, 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 programme, some of those things may have fallen by the wayside,” she said.

Professor Farnsworth also said varying rates of cervical cancer amongst different populations was a “big problem”. She said that First Nations people are dying from cervical cancer at higher rates than other Australians, as are people in rural areas who don’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 coloscopy referrals. Professor Farnsworth also nudges GPs to check out the online participant portal that GPs and practice managers can access to check their patient’s status.

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